Greek Orthodox Leader Dies

Another religious leader passes:

Greece's Orthodox Church leader, Archbishop Christodoulos, who eased centuries of tension with the Vatican but angered liberal critics who viewed him as an attention-seeking reactionary, died Monday at his home of cancer. He was 69.

The Great Schism between the eastern (Orthodox) and western (Roman) churches is pegged at 1054. They split over the issue of the primacy of Rome and the Pope, Orthodox leaders arguing that eastern and western leaders were coequal. They also differed on the issue of veneration of idols: the west allowed them and the east didn't and doesn't. And they had a difference of opinion on the Nicene Creed over whether the Holy Spirit proceeded just from the Father (east) or from the Father and Son (west). And then in 1204 when the Roman crusades passed through Constantinople on their way east to battle the Muslims, they decided it would also be fun to sack the eastern capitol and damage and defile the holiest church in the east, the Hagia Sophia. It sealed the split.

Prayers for the family of the Archbishop.