“To implement it, either Catholics and Orthodox must abandon images/icons, or Protestants must accept them.”
That’s the crux of the matter, isn’t it? Now, which is a greater compromise?
To a Catholic, iconography is an optional thing, since they can pay respect to the saints without them. There were periods of time when worship was performed in their basilicas without a single statue present. So, there is no obstacle to performing the same type of services again, unless they are unwilling to accept that the optional observances they have instituted are truly optional and can be reversed for the sake of unity.
To a Protestant, iconography is idolatry, and therefore one of the most hated things to our jealous God. All sin may be equal in the eyes of God, but it’s clear that God reserves a special distaste for this act, which He has demonstrated willingness to expunge entire nations from the face of the Earth for. From that point of view, there can be no compromise, idolatry is not optional in any way, shape or form.
By my reckoning, reconciliation could only be achieved if those who are able to compromise make the compromise. Those for whom compromise is not an option can never breach that divide. To speak of a true reconciliation without tackling these issues is mere daydreaming.
The “We must get rid of division” types always remind me of liberals denouncing partisanship.
Somehow their solution is always for others to abandon their own deeply held beliefs and agree with them, not for them to abandon their own.
When the Orthodox venerate an Icon of a Saint, we are not bowing down to paint and wood, nor are we bowing down to the Saint, but rather we are venerating the Christ in that Saint, and we are humbling ourselves in the process. The honor goes to the prototype, which is Christ our God. All of the faithful within the body of Christ are “baptized into Christ”, and have “put on Christ”. In our unity of faith, we therefore look to the Christ within one another. It is a wonderful reminder that when we come upon a fellow Christian in faith and love, WE are the lower one and we bow low before the Christ showing forth in them.
So what you’re really asking is that we stop bowing before Christ. We respectfully decline.