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Kalimera Pater, my first time posting. My questions today is, why does the church accept the best man & maid of honour at weddings to be orthodox of different countries but godparents must be Greek orthodox?
Answer to Question 442 When it comes to Best men we have something of a hypocritical situation. In many cases we marry someone who is Anglican but insist that the best man must be Orthodox. Also in recent years we turn a blind eye if the maid of honour is non-Orthodox but again the best man must be Orthodox. The best man and the maid of honour do not sign anything and during the service the only thing they do is exchange the rings on the couple’s fingers. They are representatives of the people of God and stand as witnesses to the promise of love and devotion between the new couple. Their exchanging of the rings is symbolic of their promise to stand by the couple and always support them in their new life. The only reason why the best man has to be Orthodox is that it was and still is the custom for the best man to baptize the first child and the Godparent cannot be anything but Orthodox.
According to how strictly we adhere to the canons of the church, a Roman Catholic or Protestant isn’t baptized and therefore cannot be a Godparent to an Orthodox child. In simple terms, we may all call ourselves Christians, but we are not the same and we teach different dogmas. But in recent years we have seen Catholics standing as second Godparents. The Church has allowed this as a dispensation - what we call “economia” because she understands that we live in multi-racial and multi-religious societies and close relationships with non-Orthodox cannot be avoided. But the second Catholic or Protestant Godparent doesn’t actually take part in the service: he/she simply stands next to the first Godparent who is the only Godparent the Church officially recognizes by entering his/her name on the Baptism certificate and in the Church’s register. The Greek word for sponsor is ‘Ανάδοχος’ and means someone who receives and in the case of a baptism it refers to the Godparent receiving in his/her arms the baptized child. In truth there can only be one Ανάδοχος because only one person actually receives the child from the baptismal font.
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