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Why do you think the catholic church and the orthodox church are not looking to unite in these turbulent times - after all the difference between the two are minimal - in fact the Orthodox churches accept Roman Catholics for marriage?
Answer to Question 26.
There is dialogue between the two churches with the aim of finding common ground and hopefully to restore communion. If this is to happen it will not be in the immediate foreseeable future, it will take many years of talks and will begin with joint prayers with the hope of leading to full communion. But to be realistic, this will never happen unless we recognise the Pope as a lawful bishop. The differences we have with the Roman Catholic Church are not minor; there are some very serious dogmatic differences which in my view can never be resolved. The list of differences is endless. If there ever is to be a unification of the two churches many of these differences even those that seem trivial will have to be resolved. There cannot be one church with two faiths, two types of baptisms, two types of Eucharist, etc. Understandably many Orthodox today see the attempts of the Ecumenical movement for reconciliation as a new threat because to reach an agreement both sides will undoubtedly have to give and take and compromise in some area of faith. For the moment the majority of our Orthodox bishops are not in a willing position to sacrifice the Truth for the sake of reconciliation. Any such tendencies will have consequences with violent protests from defenders of Orthodoxy which will eventually cause another schism within the Church.
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