re: Church splits are coming. Preached to about this. (UMC Related)

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The Bishop of Rome always had that power and it was acknowledged by the Bishop of Constantinople as well as the rest of Christendom going back to the beginning. There are numerous historical examples that can be cited. This whole "first among equals" BS was started by the Church in Constantinople because that particular bishop sought greater earthly power.

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No it wasn’t. Even your own Pope Gregory denounced such things. What you’re referencing is the fake history.

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There's a reason why the great Sees of the Eastern Church, including Constantinople, fell to Islamic conquest while Rome remained untouched. I also don't find it a big coincidence that the greatest heresies in the history of the Church (Gnosticism, Arianism, Pelagianism, Nestorianism, and Monophysitism) all started in the East.

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That’s a pretty pointless argument. Many cities have come and gone, and yet Orthodoxy perseveres. As far as these issues arising in the east, four of the five patriarchates were in the east. Today, Orthodoxy is free not only of those issues but also of the innovations within Roman Catholicism of the second millennium of Christian history.

But really this discussion belongs somewhere besides this thread.

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There's a reason why the great Sees of the Eastern Church, including Constantinople, fell to Islamic conquest while Rome remained untouched. I also don't find it a big coincidence that the greatest heresies in the history of the Church (Gnosticism, Arianism, Pelagianism, Nestorianism, and Monophysitism) all started in the East.

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I recognize the poster you're responding to is "recruiting" for Eastern Orthodoxy as the original, one and only repository of unadulterated Christian theology, liturgy, and doctrine and has taken a somewhat disingenuous shot at Rome-your response is swinging back from the floor and no less disingenuous.

Of course heresy originated in the "East". And are all, for the most part among us to this day. Unless you're willing to lump Jerusalem with Rome as the "West", it is eastern, where The Church was born and seat of the first Christian Episcopal See. And Geography, military factors, and other reasons may be responsible for why the Eastern Sees fell to Islamic cult's conquest. Not the least of which might be that the Moslems believed those Sees a purer, more dangerous Christian threat to the Islamic cult.

The split between Rome and the East is probably (in general terms) about a couple of Roman Spanish Bishops deciding unilaterally that they had an important clause to add to the Creed and did so forcing a split between Constantinople and Rome. The Bishop of Rome was not innocent of having aspirations to primacy in any event.

Rome, the East, Anglicanism (that remnant which remains orthodox and faithful) all have direct links to the Apostolic Church, Christ's body he instituted and left here on earth to do his will and fulfill his Great Commission. All equally have had external influences and internal failings showing them to be imperfect. They're parishes are comprised of fallen, sinful men and women and led by fallen, sinful men.

The central truth of the Faith as expressed in the historic Creeds (with the fairly important exception of the clause referenced earlier) are held by the three "catholic" expressions of the Faith.

Rather than defending ourselves from the world, or worse, chasing after the world, pandering to it, compromising and weakening the Gospel and Christ's mission entrusted to us, fighting among ourselves-we need to engage at the level of our Bishops to mend fences and strengthen Christ's Church for the great task set before all of us. The Church's members need likewise to pursue peace and obey Christ.

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Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

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