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Clerical celibacy is the practice in which clergy and monastics, male or female, refrain from marriage and from all sexual relationships and activities.
The first documented case of mandatory clerical celibacy was the Council or Synod of Elvira, held in Spain sometime towards the beginning of the fourth century. From there it spread gradually east until celibacy was required for all western clerics. This practice never took hold in the East.
In Eastern Orthodoxy, bishops and monastics are celibate. However, candidates for the priesthood and diaconate are allowed to marry if they do so before ordination. A married priesthood is technically allowed in the Eastern Rite Catholic churches. However, in some jurisdictions, Latin Rite Catholic bishops have not recognized married Uniate priests as being valid, which has been a contributing factor to the return of several Eastern Rite groups to Orthodoxy.

http://orthodoxwiki.org/Celibacy

CLERGY AND LAITY
The emphasis on communion and fellowship, as the basic principle of church life, inhibited the development of clericalism. The early Christian practice of having the laity participate in episcopal elections never disappeared completely in the East. In modern times, it has been restored in several churches. The Moscow Council of 1917-1918 introduced it in Russia, even if the events of the Revolution prevented its full implementation. Bishops are also elected by clergy-laity conventions in America and in other areas of the Orthodox world.

The lower orders of the clergy—i.e., priests and deacons—are generally married men. The present canonical legislation allows the ordination of married men to the diaconate and the priesthood, provided that they were married only once and that their wives are neither widows nor divorcees. These stipulations reflect the general principle of absolute monogamy, which the Eastern Church considered as a Christian norm to which candidates for the priesthood are to comply strictly. Deacons and priests cannot marry after their ordination.

Bishops, however, are selected from among the unmarried clergy or widowed priests. The rule defining the requirement for an unmarried episcopate was issued at a time (6th century) when monks represented the elite of the clergy. The contemporary decrease in the number of monks in the Orthodox Church has created a serious problem in some territorial churches, in that new candidates for the episcopacy are difficult to find.

Besides being admitted, at least in some areas, to participation in episcopal elections, Orthodox laymen often occupy positions in church administration and in theological education. In Greece almost all professional theologians are laymen. Laymen also frequently serve as preachers.

http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/general/doctrine2.aspx

Divorce and Ordination

QUESTION:

If a person had been married, and then is divorced, can he be ordained? Let's say that the divorce was not his fault, and now he has remarried, can he pursue a priestly vocation?

Does Canon Law prohibit his ordination, or is it left up to the discretion of the local Bishop?

Can a person be ordained without finishing seminary, or is that left up to the discretion of the local Bishop? I know there is an exception to every rule!

ANSWER:

Concerning ordination, married men may be ordained to the diaconate and priesthood. However, they must be married only one time to a woman who also has been married only one time. If a man is a widower, he too may be ordained, provided that he has not remarried, and he may not marry after his ordination. The Tradition of the Orthodox Church is that both the priest as well as his wife must have been married only one time - to each other. And this would apply regardless of whether the person is no longer married due to divorce or to widowhood.

There have been a few rare exceptions to this, but I emphasize that in each case it is a "rare" exception, if not an abnormality which is not generally in keeping with the Tradition and canons of the Church.

seminary -- within the Orthodox Church in America -- unless some extraordinary circumstance exists, all candidates for the priesthood are expected to complete the prescribed course of study at one of the OCA’s three seminaries. Graduation from an OCA seminary, however, does not guarantee ordination. Ordination is not the prerogative of a seminary administration but, rather, of the bishops of the Church.

In exceptional cases the Holy Synod of Bishops may agree to permit the ordination of a man who has been prepared for the priesthood under other circumstances, but in general this option is applied only in the case of non-Orthodox clergy who have converted to Orthodoxy, have successfully completed a specialized course of study, and have passed the standard "late vocations" examination. Mature men who aspire to the permanent diaconate may study in specially designed courses for this purpose. It is made clear, however, that the course of study does not "replace" seminary training, does not guarantee eventual ordination to the diaconate, and does not lead to eventual ordination to the priesthood without further training, usually in a seminary. Again, there have been a few exceptions to the above, but in each instance they represent extremely unusual or extraordinary circumstances.

http://www.oca.org/QA.asp?ID=169&SID=3