TO A non-Christian,or even to a Christian who prefers to keep doctrine and worship as simple as possible, the Catholic and Orthodox churches can leer pretty similar. Both use elaborate ceremonies of ancient origin and have multiple ranks of robed clergy; both claim continuity with the dawn of the Christian era; both have wealthy theological and scholarly traditions and generally, and long institutional memories. Only an apparently tiny disagreement separates the versions they use of the creed setting out their basic beliefs in a triune God of Father,Son and Holy Spirit. Why, then, or do the two devout bodies not simply unite? On February 12th Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow,the head of the Russian Orthodox church, will meet in Cuba. Though not unprecedented in the last ten centuries such a meeting is nonetheless strange. Why?fraction of the respond is that precisely because both institutions have long memories, or differences which emerged many centuries ago still matter. The formal parting between the Christian West and the Christian East occurred in 1054; to some extent it reflected cultural and...
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Source: economist.com