Those few Chinese bishops who have not done so remain in formal schism.

In 1053, the first step was taken in the process which led to formal schism.

Although the statement from Moscow spoke of "a shattering of the ages-long Orthodox unity," Orthodox church leaders in the United States said the action fell short of a formal schism.

May mark the first formal schism between Christianity and Judaism at which it was agreed that Christians did not need to be circumcised or alternately may represent a form of early Noahide Law.

Arius' success in dividing the leaders of the church made the chance of a formal schism a very real one.

The Early Buddhist schools, into which pre-sectarian Buddhism split (without formal schisms, in the sense of Vinaya).

In one such interview, he said that the 1988 consecrations gave rise to a situation of separation, even if not a formal schism.

In a letter to Catholics in the Archdiocese, he warned the faithful that they would be risking grave sin if they knowingly attempted to receive sacraments from a priest who is in formal schism.

But some of the pope's most cherished goals for the future, like mending the formal schism between Roman Catholicism and Orthodox churches that dates to 1054, were delicately probed.

This created the church's first formal schism in over a century.