Again so much is happening and I haven't had a chance to really sit down to organize my thoughts until now. However the points that I will be making in this posts are only based on my limited knowledge, I don't have facts but I report what I hear from people that are going through or what I hear in media circles.
Today in Egypt there was a demonstration for civil divorces for Coptic Orthodox Christians to be granted in order to bypass church mandated rules regarding divorce. personally the media that has reported this has left out a lot of information about the stance of the Coptic church regarding this issue, with the exception that the church is against divorce. Okay that's fine but to an outside reader it just puts the church in a very bad light. This situation also brings up the issue of separation between religion and state within Egypt. So that will be another issue that I hope to address.
first you can read all about the sacrament of matrimony according to the Coptic church here http://www.copticchurch.net/topics/thecopticchurch/sacraments/6_matrimony.html
the sacrament of marriage is quite beautiful and if youre not so distracted with all the petty details of the wedding, the prayers are amazing. A mystery is occurring. Even the hymn of the Holy Spirit is sung during the ceremony. A traditional Coptic wedding is done with liturgy immediately following the matrimonial ceremony since the sacraments in the church normally have you take communion immediately following the type of sacrament. It is quite beautiful to see the newlywed couple taking communion together for the first time as husband and wife. I've been to several of these traditional weddings. They are long but they are worth it. I could go on forever, but let's not digress.
Understanding the church's stance on divorce is simple...the church leans on the teaching from the Bible regarding adultery as being the reason. Bishop Paula is the bishop of family affairs and he is the one who ultimately grants the divorce. He has a weekly show on ctv ( Coptic channel ) called beit ala el sakhr or in English: house on a rock. Here he addresses many relationship issues and many people call in or come on the show to speak about their horror stories. Their cases are heartbreaking and some have had their pending cases for many years.
In my own opinion there needs to be more than one bishop assigned to this. It seems like the separation rate within the Coptic church has increased. So I believe the Coptic church needs to somehow reform on how they tackle this, not alter Biblical teaching which they must uphold as church leaders. Part of the reasons of protesting is that many cases have been just dragged on for years without any movement...this can take an emotional and physical toll on the couple.
Those who separate or divorce in the church suffer from being treated like outsiders from other parishioners because somehow we have in our brain that divorce is haram...priests and servants in th church need to do better outreach to families who need help instead of waiting for some big blow out to occur then become the next pariahs of the church.
Getting back on track with this issue is a bigger problem....some people resort to converting to Islam to get what they want. I don't know about you, but converting religions just to get what you want is unacceptable from both ends. I do not want someone converting to Christiantiy just so that they can get married and not really believe in Christ. I believe the same goes for other religions. Taking these extreme measures puts one in a position where they have severed themselves from other sacraments such as Eucharist. I know the situation is difficult but that's where the church can somehow streamline this process and give out their decisions faster.
Civil marriages require a secular state. As of now, Egypt is not a secular state, and many revolutionaries are fighting for this. Egypt has two types of citizens, Muslims and non Muslims. On the national ID card the religion is stated, which can lead to discrimination if you are not Muslim, especially if the person who is trying to hire, help, arrest, or whatever has something against you being not Muslim. Egypt needs to get on the program eliminating this. When I show my driver's license here in the US, my religion is not stated on there. Same should go for Egypt and their national ID card. Have each religious institution deal with their follows in a spiritual not political way. Not all Egyptians follow a religion, so if they were born into it and have to follow these rules that they don't follow to begin with it causes issues. So establishing a secular state will allow for a secular solution to gain divorce.
I can go on and on about this but enough for now. The Coptic church needs to do a better job outreaching families, education thru pre marital sessions and couples meetings after, and delegation of more learned church clergy to assist Bishop Paula in granting divorces or streamline the process so that one is it left 7 years in limbo trying to get a separation from someone who potentially can do physical or emotional harm.
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