Eastern Orthodoxy

Although in practice icons often were (and still often are) objects of worship among Orthodox believers and several of them were and are believed to have supernatural powers, the official teaching of the Orthodox Church is that they are not sacred object of worship. In that sense there is or was no difference or tension between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church. Roman Catholic teaching also does not consider statues of the Virgin and other Saints as holy object of worship, and exactly as among Orthodox believers, many devout Catholics do nevertheless pray to those statues and attribute supernatural powers to some of them.

Nor was there any difference on the issue whether Jesus was the Son of God. There was however a subtle difference on the issue of the Holy Spirit: Orthodox teaching holds that Father, Son and Holy Ghost are 3 separate 'persons', with the Holy Ghost being linked to only the Father. Catholicism sees the three as a "Trinity", and has the Holy Ghost linked to the Father as well as to the Son.

No; basically the schism was caused by a power struggle, pure and simple. The Eastern Roman Emperor totally rejected the claims of what he considered just the Bishop of an impoverished and politically negligible city like Rome (which the Pope was, at the time) of "universal jurisdiction" over all Christians. Meaning that his Empire, his Church and even he himself should be subject to said bishop. So instead, the Emperor created the "Orthodox"church organization in which the church's highest cleric was answerabele to him instead of the other way around.

They went with the Patriarchs of Constantinople, as opposed to the Pope in Rome.

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The Great Schism, otherwise known as the Western Schism is not to be confused with the Schism of the East. The Schism of the East was when the Eastern Church broke into two factions, half staying with Rome, and half formed what is now called the Orthodox Church. Many contemporary, particularly protestant scholars seem to confuse the two. What is called the Great Schism in the Catholic Church was the Western Schism, which, even more confusing, was not really a schism in the sense that the Schism of the East was, but a time when the Church had more than one claimant to the Papal Throne, finally resulted in three, one pope and two antipopes.

from

Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980

The Great Schism, otherwise known as the Western Schism, 1378-1417, when there was controversy over the true succession to the papacy. It began with the writings of Marsilius of Padua c. 1275- 1342), who claimed that a pope is subject to a council of bishops, priests, and laymen. Urban VI was elected Pope on April 8, 1378, following the seventy-year Avignon residence of the papacy. He was a stern reformer and also harsh. The French cardinals in retaliation declared that Urban had not been validly elected and proceeded to elect Robert of Geneva as the antipope Clement VII (1378-94). Clement withdrew to Avignon and the Great Schism was in full swing. France, Scotland, and Spain gave their allegiance to Clement; England, Italy, Flanders, Hungary, Poland, and most of Germany followed Urban, who died in 1389. There followed a succession of lawful popes at Rome and antipopes at Avignon. The universities of Paris, Oxford, and Prague disputed how the impasse should be resolved. Finally pope and antipope were invited to a council at Pisa (1409); both decline and were declared deposed by the council, which proceeded to elect yet another antipope, Alexander V (1409-10). In desperation, Emperor Sigismund of Germany appealed to the antipope John XXIII of Pisa, to call a general council at Constance, a German city on the Rhine. John agreed, and the council, later legitimized, was convened in 1414. It lasted four years and finally resolved the schism. The Pisan antipope John XXIII abdicated. Gregory XII, the true Roman Pontiff, having formally convoked the Council of Constance, sent his representatives, and then, for the good of the Church, freely resigned his office. The claim of Benedict XIII of Avignon was no longer worthy of serious consideration. The chair of Peter, vacant at last was filled by the election, November 11, 1417, of Pope Martin V. The Great Schism was ended.

The Schism of the East split each of the eastern Rites of the Church in half , with half remaining with Rome, and half becoming what is now known as the Orthodox Church.

from A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, Second edition, revised 1957

The Schism of the East the estrangement and severance from the Holy See of what is now called the Orthodox Eastern Church was a gradual process extending over centuries. After a number of minor schisms the first serious, though short, break was that of Photius; from then on tension between East and West increased, and the schism of Cerularius occurred in 1054. From then on the breach gradually widened and has been definitive since 1472. There was a formal union from the 2nd Council of Lyons in 1274 until 1282, and a more promising one after the Council of Florence from 1439 to 1472. After the capture of Constantinople it was in the Turkish interest to reopen and widen the breach with the powerful Roman church; the patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem were dragged into this policy, Russia and the Slav churches stood out the longest of any: none of these churches, except Constantinople itself in 1472, formally and definitely broke away from the unity of the Church. But in the course of centuries the schism has set and crystallized into a definite separation from the Holy See of many million people with a true priesthood and valid sacraments. The origins, causes and development of the schism are matters of much complication, still not fully unraveled.

Bishop-Elect Andrew (Vujisić) of Tralles: Archimandrite Andrew (Vujisić) is the bishop-elect of Tralles, with the responsibility of establishing and administering Pan-Orthodox communities in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean for the Ecumenical Patriarchate. This is a new and important development in the life of the Orthodox Church in the diaspora.

Archimandrite Andrew (born Zoran Vujisić on January 30, 1957) is the first child of the late Vojislav and Sofia Vujisić (née Jovović). He is a Montenegrin of the Moračani clan, and is a close relative of Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral. He lived in the former Yugoslavia until he was 12 years old. In 1969, his family moved to West Germany, where he lived for one year before migrating to Australia. He is fluent in Serbian, English, and Spanish, and has a working knowledge of Romanian, Hungarian, and German.

He completed his undergraduate studies at Thomas Edison State College, and earned his Licentiate of Orthodox Sacred Theology at the St Sophia Ukrainian Orthodox Seminary. He also completed a M.A. Ed. degree, with Honors, at the University of Phoenix; a D. Min. in Marriage and Family Therapy (Summa cum laude) at Southern Christian University; and a Ph.D. in English and Applied Linguistics at Rhodes University. Recently he has further earned a Th.D. in Practical Theology from the University of South Africa with his doctoral dissertation on The Impact of Neptic-Psychotherapeutic Treatment on Self-Reported Depressive Symptomatology and Comorbid Anxiety. He was also elected to "Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges" in recognition of his academic accomplishments and scholarship.

He returned to Australia in 1981, and after receiving the monastic tonsure, he was ordained to the diaconate on January 29 (January 16, O. S.), 1988, and to the priesthood on February 15 (February 2, O. S.), 1989. After his ordination, he served as assistant priest in St. Mary's Orthodox Parish in Sydney, Australia, where he was instrumental in bringing many converts to Orthodoxy, several of whom now serve as Orthodox clergymen. He also served as interim rector of Holy Annunciation Romanian Orthodox Parish and of St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Parish, both in the Sydney metropolitan area.

From 1982 through 1995, Fr. Andrew served as director of St. Mary's Orthodox Community Welfare Center and coordinator of the parish's Community Refugee Sponsorship Program. He was also the administrator of the Archdiocesan Community Housing Program, which provided low cost housing for underprivileged families. Additionally, he served as Archdiocesan Religious Education Coordinator for Public Schools from 1991 through 1995.

In 1996, Fr. Andrew arrived in the Caribbean where he established St. Spyridon's Orthodox Mission, the first Orthodox parish in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite by Metropolitan Athenagoras of Mexico on December 13 (November 30, O. S.), 1999.

In addition to his pastoral duties, Fr Andrew is the Rector of St. Basil of Ostrog Higher Institute of Theological Sciences and has served as a professor of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Turabo in Gurabo, Puerto Rico, and as a counselor/therapist at the University's Resource Center for Counseling and Professional Orientation. He was recently appointed Director of the University's Center for Language. He is also the editor of Puerto Rico's only ambilingual linguistic journal, Glossa, which is distributed globally.

On September 29, 2009, the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate elected Archimandrite Andrew as Bishop of Tralles. The announcement of his election, citing the growing number of Orthodox immigrants to Latin American countries who are deprived of pastoral care, states that the Bishop-elect will assume the responsibility of establishing and administering pan-Orthodox communities wherever necessary.

Archimandrite Andrew will be consecrated to the episcopacy by His All-Holiness, the Ecumenical Patriarch, at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St George in the Phanar on November 21 (November 8, O. S.), 2009, on which day he observes his Krsna Slava.

The Codex Sinaiticus is a very early copy of the Sacred Scriptures. From the Catholic Encyclopedia:"A Greek manuscript of the Old and New Testaments, of the greatest antiquity and value; found on Mount Sinai, in St. Catherine's Monastery, by Constantine Tischendorf." It's author would be God. Those who actually made the copies are unknown. Again from the Catholic Encyopedia: "Tischendorf judged that there were four hands engaged in the writing of the manuscript; in this he has been generally followed. He has been less happy in obtaining acceptance of his conjecture that one of these scribes also wrote the New Testament of the Vatican Codex. He recognized seven correctors of the text, one of them contemporaneous with the writing of the manuscript. The Ammonian Sections and the Eusebian Canons are indicated in the margin, probably by a contemporary hand; they seem to have been unknown to the scribe, however, who followed another division. The clericalerrors are relatively not numerous, in Gregory's judgment." To look at the entire article, you may find it here:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04085a.htm