Almost all young people aspire to creating a strong and happy family. However, it can become a difficult task, especially for those who aspire to a perfect marriage with a person who will not only share his or her family life, but who will be spiritually close. For an Orthodox who follows general church rules and who does not attend secular entertainments, it is rather hard to find a person who will share his views on life standards and spiritual desires. During church services people usually do not make acquaintances. There are not many places for communicating with an Orthodox as well. Some churches have brotherhoods where young people gather for spiritual discussions, but these are not many. In the old days in Rus this problem was solved with the help of a matchmaker. A matchmaker was usually a woman who knew all potential young man and women of marrigeable age living around. At that time matchmakers possessed great information about young people, who reached the age of marriage and who were ready to create their own families. And mostly this was how young people improved their family lives at that period. Nowadays it is acknowledged that matchmakers were born psychologists, as they could easily find and match a suitable pair for a marriage. However, time passes and new technologies appear: now there are dating agencies and dating web-sites. Statistics proves that more than 500 million people daily visit dating sites in order to improve their family lives. But the «religion» questionnare item does not always mean that a person who considers himself to be a believer, knows and follows the articles of his faith. That is why as a rule priests do not trust these web-sites and do not recommend their congregation to make acquaintances on such dating sites of general character. Orthodox dating sites have its own specific character. Their main contingent are chaste young people with pure and vulnerable souls. In order to protect Orthodox parishioners from the intrusion of those who are far from religion, there are some easy questions concerning Christianity when you register on these sites. Thus, an Orthodox may be sure that on the site he is surrounded by his coreligionists. Besides, priests who administer such Orthodox dating sites, hold conversations on forums concerning such topics as «true Christian love», «Orthodox upbringing», «marriage and family» and many other questions that may be interesting for young people. Today thanks to the Orthodox dating sites many people have already found their special persons, who are ready to share both joy and sorrow for the rest of their lives. Author: Shinkarenko Tatiana
