[Conservative til I die]

You are correct about the Monophysite church split - that was an understandable error to make in a news article when giving a brief history to a reporter. The issue of contraception is a straw man.

I don't think so. It's very relevant. Remember, prior to 1930, almost all the major Protestant denominations also forbade the use of contraceptions. 75 years later, and many of them turn a blind eye to homosexuality and abortion, in addition to contraception.

I find it disturbing that the Orthodox used to feel the same way, but now have "relaxed" the rules on using contraceptives.

It's a gross re-defining of "we don't change" when you can say one sinful behavior isn't so sinful anymore. "Don't change" usually means "don't change", not "change some things."

[FormerLib]

I find it disturbing that the Orthodox used to feel the same way, but now have "relaxed" the rules on using contraceptives.

Actually, it has more to do with the fact that contraceptive methods that were not abortiofacient came into common use.

Also, many Roman Catholics labor under the misconception that the Orthodox Church approves of the use of contraceptives for any reason whatever, this is patently untrue. Permission to use contraception can be given but it still viewed as a moral failing.

[Destro]

Orthodox are not fundamentalists. It is as simple as it is complex to explain. What is meant by "no change" and what determines Orthodoxy is adherence to the 8 ecumenical councils and then the pan-Orthodox councils. The Orthodox do not consider pan-Orthodox councils to be ecumenical without Rome and thus pan-Orthodox councils can not touch upon the first 8 ecumenical councils. Catholics on the other hand recognize 21 "ecumenical" councils.

To claim that the Church does "not change" is to deny the rulings of the 8 ecumenical councils and adopt Islamic like mind think.

Of course the Church both east and west say that the religion is not being changed but defined more accurately. What the ecumenical councils do is try to correct errors in the perfect religion that imperfect man through imperfect understanding corrupts.

The Church Fathers rightly figured that the Holy Spirit acting through the mechanism of the whole Church's council via debate and discussion and confirmed by vote of the ecumenical bishops would get at the truth.

Contraception's allowance in severly restricted and limited circumstances is a pan-Orthodox council ruling and would not be binding upon returning to a unified church which would have to take everything back to the first 8 ecumenical councils.

The Catholics on the other hand altered the faith 13 times (!) and considering these innovations as ecumenically binding and not Pan-Latin ones.