Top Roman Catholic and Orthodox clerics declared Monday the time has come to heal the rifts between the two churches and to seek unity.
Sixty top Roman Catholic and Christian Orthodox clerics gathered for a week in Belgrade, Serbia, to renew theological dialogue this week, after talks broke off six years ago.
"East and West have been estranged from each other since the 11th century," said Orthodox Metropolitan John Zizioulas, according to The Associated Press. The schism of 1054 created the two churches of Rome and Constantinople - now Istanbul, Turkey.
"It is time to recover the ancient unity,” he reportedly said, adding that, because of the new political reality in Europe, East and West must now also meet on the political level...
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THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: This is truly great news. Let's hope and pray something substantial comes out of it this time. The Church needs unity, and the Eastern Orthodox are the most likely candidates for a reasonable reunification in the near future -- mainly because their beliefs and sacraments are virtually the same as ours. Satan's strategy has always been to divide and conquer, and one reason why Islam has had such success over the last millennium is precisely because of the division between eastern and western Christianity.
