Church leaders hold historic meeting

A Roman Catholic Pope and the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church will meet for the first time in a bid to heal the 1,000-year-old rift between the Western and Eastern branches of Christianity

MAJOR BRANCHES OF CHRISTIANITY

Nestorian Schism (431)

Council of Chalcedon (451)

Great Schism, 1054: Eastern Christian churches (led by Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Cerularius) and Western Church (led by Pope Leo IX)
separate over cultural, political, and religious differences

Protestant Reformation (16th Century)

Assyrian Church

Oriental Orthodox

Eastern Orthodoxy

Roman Catholicism

Anabaptism

Lutheranism

Calvinism

Anglicanism

Restorationism

EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH

Communion of 14 self-governing churches, with Istanbul-based Patriarch of Constantinople considered “first among equals”

Russian Orthodox Church

Largest and most powerful Church in Orthodoxy 165m

165m

ORTHODOX CHURCH

250m members

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

1.2 billion members worldwide

Pope Francis Elected in Mar 2013

Patriarch Kirill Elected in Feb 2009

Sources: Vatican, Columbia Encyclopedia, Oxford University

Pictures: Getty Images