Ray, my brother,

I just now realized that the line you quoted was from my not-so-subtle rant :rolleyes:

Thank you for the kind and wise words of advice; hopefully, you are right and the sharing of a meal with us will have salutarious effects. We can only pray.

Many years,

Neil

It will be Mary, the Holy Protector, who constantly interceeds on our behalf. Her humility rebukes our failures as only a blessed mother can do.

Most Holy Theotokos save us!

Cyril, defender of the Theotokos

Kinda interesting that I seem (forgive me if I'm wrong) to be the first teen to post in this thread.

You wanna know what I think will bring us back together? Islam completely taking over Europe. People drag their feet all the time, and unless you give them a nice cattle prod to their back ends they're not gonna move. In this case that cattle prod would be Islam becoming strong again, and when the Orthodox and Catholics are forced together again to survive. That's probably what will happen.

Nice and optimistic, eh? I hope it's not true, but it could be.

I think nothing, I only remember this word:

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:3, NIV)

Unworthy, Marian +

So Nathan what happens if Islam totally takes over Europe? I'm confused. Are you saying that we have to fight them off together or that we just need to stick together so that Islam doesn't start taking over Christianity. Explain por favor.

-Katie g

Well first off Katie Islam has a 90% and better chance of completely taking over Europe period, so it's not really an if, it's a when.

And it would be a combo of us needing to fight off Islam and surive, I'm of the opinion that God treats the wound the same way it was dealt, so if our split was political it'll be more than likely a political move that brings us Christians back together. Of course the Spirit will be there, it's just that it'll look like a political move to keep from dying.

Please don't stone me if I'm wrong, I know I'm not a prophet :rolleyes:

To Nathan, my brother in Christ:

I live in Europe, in Romania. I live in East, and I am Orthodox Christian.

The knowledge is important. Therefore...
Please, Nathan, might you say to us how you found out this number 90%? Why not 9%? Or 79%?

I want to stress a thing: NOT the Islam is the problem. Islam will never conquer Europe. The people who are true Muslims are very kind and our brethren in God, we all exist only through the mercy of the Most Holy Trinity.

The problem is the secular and worldy thinking, attacking every minute the Christian Church, and our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God.
See, please, all the abominations against the nature, the TV culture, and so. The powers of the darkness try to bite from our souls.

We must change ourselves from inside. Do we love God and all the people, even the foes? Do we try to be with long-patience and wise in the solving of the world problems? Do we follow the commandments of our Lord? Again, do we love?

If we do not choose Christ, then we will be consumed like the objects from a supermarket's shelf.

Already the posts are not answering to the first post, the subject of this thread:

I say so: not what, but Who...

Yeah, only the Lord Jesus Christ, Son and Logos of the Living God, the second person of the Most Holy Trinity.

What can we do without Him? Please, remember the Holy Gospel.

Please, forgive me.

Brotherly, with peace, in Christ, Marian

Glory be forever!

Fine fine fine, I'll change it to WESTERN Europe....... and the only real reason why Muslims would be able to do what they do is because of the corruption over there. I'm not saying Muslims are bad people, I hope I never do, but facts is facts:Muslims are quickly becoming the majority in western Europe. I mean, approx eight kids a family to one??

But regardless, God will bring us together.

I suppose getting back to the original question. There is no eastern rite as such. There is the Byzantine rite and various other rites. each with their own structures, Spirituality and history. The Churches have been in contact with each other for many years now. People sho dont know each other can't do very much about unity of their churches. So I suppose it needs for those who are interested in unity to get out and meet some of the people from other churches and read so as to be better informed about other churches.

Comforting that there are so many 'teens' on this site.

Greetings and all that good stuff :-D(I dont' have to try to sound sophisticated here right? I mean I've been on campus all day and it's a teen forum... I'll take my chances)
Anyway, I think that the unity of the church will be brought about by many things, and if not in this life then definately in heaven. I believe that the intercession of the Theotokos is invaluable to the unity of the church; Christ Himself prayed that we would be one. Humility and prayer are going to be major catlysts, those are the powers in a Christian's life, as well as the grace God gives through so many means (the sacraments, other believer's in one's life, the Holy Spirit etc.).
I do have a question for ya'll: are we talking about the entirety of the body of Christ or just the eastern orthodox and the Roman Catholic church? Does the hope for unity include the Protestant churches?
I'm not sure that there will ever be perfect sacramental unity among ALL Christians in this life, if there is it will probably be as a part of the seven years tribulation. However there can be and, I believe, will be fellowship and cooperation amongst the larger body of Christ, that we will eventually get it that there are other Christians out there that we can work with in order to spread the Gospel. I know there are all sorts of hairy issues brought up with this type of comment but I'm just going to throw this out for now.
BTW I'm not trying to offend anyone, Protestants and Catholics and the Orthodox are all just as guilty of looking down their nose at other Christians as any of the next guys, I did it myself. And I'm certainly not implying that there is not already cooperation within the universal church because there definately is.
Those are my thoughts on the subject(at the moment).
God bless,
Sarai