To which part of my post are you responding? The fact that we can't seem to come to Fathers without our preconceived ideas or the fact that some middle-eastern Christians choose not to participate in the schism?
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No, not exactly, it was an idea of: How did we exist pre-schism inspite of our "small T" traditions? Granted the split didnt happen in one event but over the course of time. Im sure there were many non religious factors involved: distances, language differences, customs, cultural, and ethnicity issues, and the like which may have factored into what we have today. As a former RC I have always had issues with the Pope's claim of Infallibility and Supremacy. And I know the RCC's argument that they werent coming up with new innovations, but " only reasserting what was already accepted in the western church". I think this was a mistake to make this dogma, and I think this is where the problem lies. But this is only me thinking.