Browsing: weddings

Source: Orthodox in the District  Perhaps several of you priests have been asked by a family to introduce the “giving away of the bride” by the father, into the Crowning service. However, people in Western cultures appear not to remember the meaning of this action. It is absolutely not permitted in the Orthodox Crowning service. The “giving away” of the bride was done because a woman was owned by her father until he gave her over to be owned by her husband. A woman had no self-identity. Her identity derived from the man who owned here, either as father…