Can Eastern Orthodox deacon marry

Deacons in the Eastern Orthodox Church are not permitted to marry.

Canon 26 of the Canons of the Holy Apostles stipulates that, of the clergy, only chanters and readers are permitted to marry. All clergy in orders above that of reader are canonically forbidden from marrying, including subdeacons, deacons, priests, and bishops.

By the 7th century, there had been an increase of ignorance in many places surrounding the rules of the marriage of the clergy. Many clergy were getting married after their ordination as subdeacons. Many were marrying divorcees or marrying for a second time after being widowed. The fathers of the Sixth Ecumenical Council dealt with this, and Canon 3 of that council decreed that all clergy who had transgressed the canons out of ignorance up until the 15th of January, 681 AD (during the council), were to be dealt with leniently. They were to be suspended from their clerical duties for a time, during which they could decide whether to continue in their married state and be laicised or whether to continue as clergy and receive an ecclesiastical divorce. If they chose the latter, they would never progress beyond their current rank.

However, Canon 6 of the same council made it clear that from that point forward, any subdeacon, deacon, or priest who dared to marry after his ordination was to be deposed. This is the rule that is followed today to the point where, if a man is to be ordained a subdeacon but states an intention to marry, his ordination is delayed until after he has done so. In the meanwhile, he may be blessed to vest as a subdeacon and to perform certain roles of a subdeacon prior to his ordination.

It should be noted that all of the above refers to ordained clergy getting married and has no bearing on the entirely legitimate practice of married men being ordained up to the office of priesthood.