dcc@melbcopts.org.au
dcc@melbcopts.org.au
To open a case file with DCC, please use the online form on this website to lodge an application. You will need the following to lodge the application:
1. Civil and/or Church Marriage Certificates
2. Civil Divorce Court Order
3. Summary of the case and reasons for marriage breakdown
4. Contact details of applicant and spouse
5. Any reports or documents to support the case
6. Names and contact of the fathers the priests involved in the case
Once the application is received, DCC will contact the applicant for a meeting. The meeting can be in person in Donvale (VIC) or on Zoom (online). Then DCC will also meet in a later date separately with the spouse. These meetings are personal and confidential and thus no one is allowed to accompany the person DCC is meeting (whether in person in Dovale (VIC) or online in a Zoom meeting).
DCC will request reports from the fathers the priests mentioned in the application and then study all the material in file and either request for additional information or make a decision based on the information collected in the file.
The decision of DCC will be one of the following three:
If one of the persons in the marriage committed adultery (directly or indirectly) and there is ample evidence to prove it, then a permit to remarry is issued to the other person. The person who was proven to have committed adultery will never get a permit to remarry in the Coptic Orthodox Church.
If there is deception where the marriage was based on wrong information or undisclosed conditions and there is evidence of this deception. Also, this deception directly contributed to the failure of the marriage. In this case the marriage is annulled and both parties are granted a permit to remarry in the Coptic Orthodox Church.
This is the case when DCC cannot find enough reasons to grant any of the two previous decisions or there is not enough evidence to support the applicant claims. In this case, the couple can decide either to keep on separated without remarriage or can decide to return to their pastoral father and try to reconcile.