THE LETTER from "His Modesty Bartholomew, Patriarch of the Most Holy Mother Church of Constantinople, the New Rome" to "Alexy II, matriarch of Moscow (the third Rome) and of all the Russias" begins warmly.
"Your Beatitude, Most Holy Patriarch Alexy of Moscow and all Russia, our Modesty's most beloved and dear brother in Christ God and concelebrant: embracing Your venerable Beatitude in the Lord, we greet you exuberantly."
But in the second paragraph one gets the distinct impression that all is not brotherly, beloved or exuberant.
"Your most beloved and distinguished Beatitude's letter of February 6, 1996, indicates that so far You have not wanted to comprehend the truly peacemaking intentions of the Most Holy Mother Church of Constantinople regarding the matter of the Estonian Church.
Instead, You accuse the Ecumenical Patriarchate anew of transgressing the Holy Canons and hurl uncharacteristic threats at it and us, personally, which ought not to happen.
At the core of the problem between Constantinople (ranked first among Orthodox patriarchates) and Moscow, which is ranked fifth but has more members, is the fate of the tiny Estonian Orthodox community of about 30,000 people, some ethnic Estonians and others ethnic Russians.
Before the Soviet invasion of the Baltics in 1940 the "Estonian Apostolic Church" was in communion with Constantinople. After the tanks rolled in it came under the control of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Now Estonia is independent again and wants its own national church. But during the Soviet occupation hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians settled in the country, and many believers in the Russian community want to retain the link with the Moscow Patriarchate.
The problem is complicated further in that His Beatitude of Moscow was born Alexei Mikhailovich Ridiger in Estonia of mixed Russian and Baltic-German descent. There is also a small problem of property. The Russian church owns large churches, monasteries and lands throughout Estonia and seems prepared to face schism rather than lose them.
Constantinople has placed the Estonian Orthodox Church under Metropolitan Johannes of Finland; but the local Archbishop Korneli claims he runs the church on Moscow's behalf.
The Russian President, Mr Yeltsin, who considers himself "generally Orthodox", and his Estonian counterpart, Mr Lennart Meri, a Lutheran, have joined the fray. Mr Yeltsin has rowed in behind Alexy II and has had the matter raised at the OSCE and the UN with thinly veiled hints at disputed borders.
Mr Meri, a historian and former Gulag resident, doesn't like Russians, so not surprisingly he gives his full backing to His Modesty of Constantinople.
The result has been a clash which may yet lead to full schism. Patriarch Alexy has ceased to mention Constantinople and its Patriarch when he performs the liturgy in Moscow's Epiphany cathedral.
In reply, Patriarch Bartholomew has raised what can only be described as something of a sore point: "In no way are You justified in considering the Orthodox Estonians guilty of an uncanonical act of insubordination towards their supposed canonical bishop, namely Archbishop Kornelios, since he constitutes the continuation of the violently accomplished overthrow in 1944 of the canonical order by the Stalinist army," he wrote to Alexy Il.
That remark is regarded as insulting by the Russian church, and even though His Modesty ended his letter "In closing, embracing once again Your Beloved Beatitude as a brother in the Lord, we remain with unending love in Him and with special esteem. Your most venerable Beatitude's beloved brother in Christ, Bartholomew of Constantinople," it is quite clear that relations between Constantinople and Moscow are at their lowest ebb.
Formal contacts between the two churches have been ended. But the split will not become a real schism until the two patriarchs formally excommunicate and anathemise each other, as happened between Pope Leo IX and the Ecumenical Patriarch Michael Cerularius in 1054.
An English religious historian, Mr, Lawrence Uzzel has described the situationon as the most important split in Christendom since the Protestant Reformation
