Constantinopolis wrote:Tarsonis Survivors wrote:And there in lies the problem. Like a dinner plate that's broken into pieces, you hold on to the coaster sized disc that remains and pretend there is no breaks.Luminesa wrote:Specifically because the Church is fractured. We have many (broken) parts, but we are all one Body, and we can come together first by seeking common ground.
The dinner plate metaphor doesn't make sense. Neither does the idea that the Church is one Body and yet also broken into pieces. Think of what you are saying. The Church is one Body. Yes. A living Body. So, for example, if you cut away someone's right arm, is that man "divided" now? Does he need to be "put back together" in order to be a full person again? No. The man without his right arm is still a full person. He is the same person he used to be. The person was not "divided", it was not separated in two pieces, we don't have two persons now instead of one. We still have one person, the same one as before, although injured. And next to him we have a cut-off arm, which is not a person, and cannot possibly be called a continuation of the full person from before the cut.
That is how the Orthodox Church views schism. There is one true Church. There can only be one true Church. When division occurs, that means a piece of the true Church was cut away. But we don't get two true Churches instead of one. We still have one true Church, although injured. The piece that was cut away is not a true Church, in the same way that an arm is not a person.
It is possible to perform surgery and re-attach the arm that was cut off. Various schismatic groups have returned to the Church many times before. At one point, the Patriarchate of Bulgaria was in schism for 60 years, before re-uniting with the Orthodox Church. But this can only work if the arm is treated as an arm, one that needs to be re-attached to the body. It's not going to work if you say that the arm and the rest of the body need to "resolve their differences" and that the resulting "united person" should look part-human and part-giant-arm (you know, as a compromise).
I've never thought of it like this, to be honest. Huh.