[July 01, 2015] One of the oldest disagreements in human history is possibly about to be resolved; or at least the possibility exists that a long-running religious split might begin some healing. What is known as the East-West Schism or the Christian split is the break between what is now the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches. So why would anyone be interested in “ancient history”? Why would leaders be interested in something that happened in 1054 AD.
Any time we see irresolvable problems and hard decisions being made to fix the hardest of human problems, all leaders should pay very close attention. We hear much about the Sunni-Shia religious conflict (I’ve written about it here, here, and here) but little about the much longer division between two of the largest churches in the world.
Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church and Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church are about to have their first meeting on the 1,000 year-old rift. Such would be unprecedented and shows a great awakening of Christianity in the modern world. So many people consider religion a relic of the past and without much value; lacking in creative leaders and adhering to ancient texts of the Bible. What they fail to realize is that both the Pope and Patriarch are showing signs of great leadership and religion is far more vibrant than faddish intellectuals believe.
Last year, Pope Francis told reporters that he had sent word to Kirill that he was willing to meet the Russian patriarch “wherever you want, you call me and I’ll come.”1 There are many reasons for the rift between the churches and not just from the 11th Century. One of the biggest divisive issues is the fate of many church properties that Communist dictator Josef Stalin confiscated from Eastern Rite Catholics. Stalin gave the property to the Russian Orthodox Church. But after the fall of the Soviet Union, Eastern Rite Catholics took back much of that property.
Will this be the resolution of the longest-running rift in human history? Much is yet to be done. Here at theLeaderMaker.com, I will be following the steps toward a resolution of those issues. How it occurs will be a measure of the leadership between the Pope and the Patriarch.
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