CHURCH UNITY CONFERENCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19720, 20 August 1927, Page 11

CHURCH UNITY CONFERENCE

DEADLOCK AT LAUSANNE. OPINIONS IN CONFLICT. EASTERN DELEGATES LEAVE. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received August 19, 9.30 p.m.) A. and N.Z. LAUSANNE. Aug. 18. The sensational withdrawal of the Eastern Orthodox delegation was the feature of to-day's session of the Conference on Faith and Order. The Metropolitan of Germany said the report which the was preparing on the subject of doctrine was not consistent with the principles of the Eastern Church. It is understod the split was duo to the difficulty of reconciling the Western Protestants' rationalistic view of the Sacraments with the Eastern mystical view. The Eastern Orthodox Church, commonly called the Greek Church, has always laid special stress on the unchanging tradition of the faith, and has claimed orthodoxy as its special characteristic. The Eastern Church arose, with Christianity, in the East, and when the old Roman Empire fell in two it became separated from the Western Church and has so remained. It has its own episcopal rule and its own form of church government It. finally broke with Rome in the early 13th century. The famous controversy about the words " Filioaue '' — whether the Third Person of the Trinity " proceedeth from the Son," was one of the root causes of dissension.