In the case of the Christian churches the deepest difference has many forms and deep roots. It exists among many other differences of emphasis within Christianity. Some are Catholic or Orthodox in clearly understood senses; some are Protestant after the great Reformation confessions; others stress the local congregation, the gathered community, and the idea of the free church. Some are deeply convinced that Catholic and Protestant (or Evangelical) can be held together within a single church. The clearest obstacle to manifestation of the churches' universality is their inability to understand the measure in which they already belong together in one body.
2. The basic division amongst the Christian churches is epitomized by the Catholic-Protestant split. "From each side of that division we see the Christian faith and life as a self-consistent whole, but our two conceptions of the whole are inconsistent with each other". "We differ in our understanding of the relation of our unity in Christ to the visible holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. We are agreed that there are not two Churches, one visible and the other invisible, but one Church which must find visible expression on earth, but we differ in our belief as to whether certain doctrinal, sacramental and ministerial forms are of the essence of the Church itself. In consequence, we differ in our understanding of the character of the unity of the Church for which we hope, though none of us looks forward to an institution with a rigid uniformity of governmental structure".