I've been looking at the Catholic-Orthodox-Protestant tension for about two years from the perspective of a Protestant who used to be Catholic. I have no doubts all three traditions can learn from each other.
What scares me about Robbie's assertion "You need to experience it and be changed." is that this is the same sort of thing ANY religion can use to justify its existence. It is maybe a sign of the times that as society becomes more subjective and experiential and denies the possibility of objective truth, that the "experience" of Orthodox worship may be appealing, that the "apophatic" and "Monastic" approaches to spirituality may arouse curiosity.
I cannot shake the notion, however, that the apostles themselves appealed to evidence, that the Berean's were commended for testing Paul's teaching according to scripture. This is not to say that Orthodoxy totally discounts these things, but that the Protestant emphasis on rationality and the role of the individual in verifying the truth (as opposed to inventing it - as is rampant today) has some merit, in spite of the protestations of postmodern thought. Rationality and reason and evidence are NOT western inventions that came from Augustine or the enlightenment. Appealing to "It is written" is not a merely Protestant fabrication. While Protestants need to do much better at consulting the church fathers in interpreting scripture, Catholics and Orthodox seem to me to subjugate scripture to tradition and place the fathers in judgment over them. There has to be a common sense middle ground that allows the revelation of the apostles to stand over tradition, without tossing tradition aside. Paul's writings are infallible. The writings of Ignatius and Chrysostom are not, though they are valuable.
I do not plan to abandon Protestantism, but am very intrigued with Thomas Oden's approach described in "The Rebirth of Orthodoxy". Perhaps someday the three traditions can all agree to return to the ecumenical creeds as a starting point, accept that as common ground, and begin again allowing for unity on the essentials and freedom on other things. Then we can all move forward without having to totally discredit each other and call each other heretics.
