Reunification, everybody's doing it

OK, for something different, a blog entry that has nothing to do with family or cycling...

I just read this about possible reunification between the Roman Catholic Church and elements of the Orthodox Church. Hat tip to Marcel at Mary's Aggies. I say "elements of" only because the Russian Orthodox (not the oldest or most prestigious, but certainly the largest) members walked out because there were reps from the Estonian Orthodox church there, and the Russians apparently look on the Estonians like the Chinese do the Taiwanese. It will be interesting to see if this sticks. Since the Orthodox church is "Autocephalous," meaning that the Patriarch of Serbia has no real authority over folks under the Patriarch of Romania, it remains to be seen if each Patriarch will have to independently agree to the document, although maybe they already did, the reports I've read aren't clear. I also did a bit of Googling and found an interview with the representative Bishop from the Russian Orthodox church where he makes it clear that he agrees with the primacy of the Patriarch of Rome (the Pope) but that it's a primacy of honor, not of jurisdiction. In other words, yup, he's the first, but not really in any meaningful way. It's like letting your older brother ride shotgun so he won't mess with you you in the back seat. It looks nice and all, but it's really not something all that meaningful. It might be a good start, or it might not go anywhere. There's also a CNS report out that has some interesting tidbits. The Russian Orthodox are saying "We weren't there, it might not count." And Cardinal Kaspar points out in a Vatican Radio interview that "I think it will need a whole decade." OK, something to pray for, but it doesn't look like anything's going to happen soon.

And it reminds me also of this, although this is a bit less autocephalous and a bit more "OK, now that we've got spit in the eye by the Episcopalian Church, we can see a bit more clearly. Please let us in your club."
Hat tips to Marcel (a buddy of mine from college), to the Shrine of the Holy Whapping (never met him), and to the Bovina Blovinator (never heard of them, but that's more about my ignorance than their importance).