Meanwhile, the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Istanbul, also intervened.

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Members of the Eastern Orthodox church have been offended by the attempts of the Catholic church to proselytise in Russia.

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Their Church split from the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches in 451AD because of a theological dispute over the nature of Christ but is now, on most issues, doctrinally similar to the Eastern Orthodox Church.

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