jo, welcome to the forum.
I grew up not far from Antiochian village, and went to secondary school with many from St. Mary's Antiochian (then Syrian) Orthodox Church in Johnstown. A classmate from there always called me his Byzantine buddy, and dragged me off from school (technically it was hookey for me) on Orthodox Good Friday to go to services with him. That is a cherished memory. We were more similar than different and never dwelt on arguing differences.
The argumentation is all vanity. In the first place, if everything were obvious and easily solved on the basis of actual accessible, demonstrable knowledge, then the schism would not exist = apart from a handful of diehards.
But the truth is not obvious. I am always amazed that people who would never in a million years consider themselves as sufficiently educated and trained to act as their own medical doctors nevertheless act with such conviction and certitude as their own spiritual doctors. Truly amazing when one considers the consequences of a wrong diagnosis.
Somehow: "Here I stand..." is cherished in American culture. But what we so direly need is humilty before God, and ardent desire to help each other. A desire to value being and doing good above thinking ourselves to be right. And a better awareness of the vanity of our greatest thoughts. How to get there? Maybe Napolean Dynamite will help.
