Analyse The Significance For The Individual Of One Of The Following Christian Practices

Analyse the significance for the individual of ONE of the following Christian practices

- Baptism

- Marriage ceremony

- Saturday/Sunday worship

Marriage is a personal union between individuals. This union may also be called matrimony, while the ceremony that marks its beginning is called a wedding and the status created is sometimes called wedlock. The act of marriage changes the personal status of the individuals in the eyes of the law and society.

Marriage is an institution in which interpersonal relationships are sanctioned with governmental, social, or religious recognition. It is often created by a contract or through civil processes. Civil marriage is the legal concept of marriage as a governmental institution, in accordance with marriage laws of the land.

The Anglican community (the worldwide Church of England) sees marriage as one of the lesser sacraments, but it is not seen as a one of the sacraments that are necessary for salvation. The Anglican Church states in its teaching “the solemnisation of marriage”; that it is Gods will that marriage is a union of mutual love between one man and one woman to the exclusion of all theirs for life. This teachings mirrors in substance the catholic church’s position on the permanence of marriage and its faithful nature of the relationship”

In an Anglican marriage, one significant difference is that the Anglican Church regards the priest as a witness to the marriage while that man and woman are ministers of the sacraments to one another. On this basis a valid marriage does not have to be celebrated in the church before a minister and a civil service will be acknowledged as a valid union. This belief has an important bearing on the church’s stance on divorce and remarriage. The Anglican Church acknowledges with regret that relationships do fail and marriages break down. As the marriage bond is not regarded as indissoluble each partner is free to form new relationships after a divorce has been decreed without the stigma of living in adultery.

The Church does not allow people to remarry in the church whilst their previous spouse is still alive. It does however recognise civil marriages as a valid union so an Anglican divorcee can remarry whilst their first spouse is alive; it only requires that it was not in the church. The new marriage can however be blessed by an Anglican priest.

Therefore the significance for the individual whom is married under the Anglican Church is allowed to remarry and divorce under certain circumstances.

The Orthodox Church has its origins in the teachings of the apostles of the early Christian church and maintains the cultural identity of the communities in which the church grew. At the time of the schism in 1054ce the Orthodox churches became separated from the Latin Church over the differences in doctrine and practice but the common history of more than a thousand years means the sources of many of its teachings on the nature of marriage are also common in both variants.

Members of the Orthodox Church, marriage are a very solemn occasion. They