I know what you meant. I just wanted to clarify that we hold the Pope to be the first among other patriarchs in the way he was before the unfortunate schism. No need to apologize. I just wanted to clarify to those Protestant readers that this is not the issue. The issue is theological and doctrinal, and we are working on them, but the point you make is that both expression of the Church, east or West, gat their authority from Apostolic Succession, valid priesthood and sacraments. And I think the Catholics have been moving back to orthodoxy of late.
I hope that the Roman rite is moving back towards Orthodoxy as well.
Whatever that is customary that is a stumbling block to unity, I am willing to part with, or to leave as an option.
Orthodoxy and Rome are both the Catholic Church. The labor for us to make it a unified Catholic Church, which will not be a Roman one, but rather, a constellation of rites, including the (large, Western) Roman Rite which all share the Lord's Table and the Sacraments again.
With Orthodoxy and Roman and Eastern Rite Catholicism, this is possible. To the extent that we or they have erred, neither has erred so far as to commit heresy. We are in schism, which with whom is an old debate. But schism is not heresy. We are not anathema to each other, and we are not heretics. We are for the most part not even squabbling any more. Our disunion is a birth defect left to us by our ancestors which we and our offspring are working with love to heal.
And of course we will one day, because both churches are the Catholic Church and always have been.
With the Protestants, such as our fellow Mathemagician, it is otherwise.
I remain curious as to which particular Protestant sect he belongs.
I don't see any indication from Jesus that Christianity may be practiced alone, but see, rather, that it is to be practiced communally.
Communities have their own dogmas, their approved translations of the Bible, etc. Thus far, there has been no willingness on his part to identify his spiritual community. I find this odd. Freelance Christianity: an interesting concept...just not one that seems to have occurred to Jesus, or Peter, or Paul, or Luke, or John, or James...