But I think 'we' can all agree to serve God and God's kingdom even in different styles, manners and functions. Dear God, let it be so.
I wish to disagree with you, kindly and with charity, but firmly nonetheless. There is nothing in Scripture in which either Jesus or Paul speaks of the establishment of numerous sui juris "churches" each with its own leadership and with different doctrines and moral teachings. Throughout the Sacred Scriptures, going all the way back to Genesis, we see God selecting a certain person or a certain group and establishing His covenant with them - not with the whole world. The understand of the scriptures is that those who wished salvation and a relationship with God came to Him on His terms, and not their own, which is what Protestantism is.
God establishes His covenant with Abraham as the covenantal head on earth, with the promise that through him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. We see later that if one wishes to enter into covenant relationship with God, it is done in one way and one way only - circumcision. God later expands this relationship so that a nation is created, a covenant people who are to offer to anyone who comes freely, the gift of covenant with God through circumcision.
Now here is something important to note: in the desert, as the covenant people are formed under Moses and given their directions for worship, God says something to Moses that Protestants should have taken note of.
Heb 8:5 Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was
admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he,
that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount
Note that word "admonished." That is a strong warning that the worship patterns that God gave to Moses were not to be tampered with by human ideas of right and wrong. There was no idea of "well, I don't like circumcision, so I'll replace it with salvation by faith alone" or "Offer an animal? How very gory. I think I'll offer some fruit instead." God said "Do it this way - or else!"
Fast forward to Christ and the New Covenant. Jesus said that the nation of Israel would be replaced for their acts of malice towards the Son of God (Matthew 21: 33-46). This new congregation which replaced Israel of the Old Covenant is called "the Church" and by the second century, was called "katholicos" or "universal." That is worth noting, because again, the Apostles, following the teaching of the Lord, established worship norms which were
the same wherever you went in the empire. So unified was this teaching that by the end of the second century, St. Vincent of Lerins said that the katholicos faith was "that which is taught everywhere, at all times, and by all people."
There was no deviation - until the Roman Rite added to the Creed and thus broke the chain of universality. Then 500 years later, that breakaway from the universal church got up a real head of steam when Protestantism took off in so many directions it was like watching a feather pillow be thrown into a fan!
Why is uniformity in worship and practice so important? Because proper worship is a reflection of eternal worship:
Heb 9:23 It was therefore necessary that the
patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24 For Christ is not entered into the
holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
The Temple and its worship was a pattern of things in heaven. So is Orthodox worship. So was the Mass, even up to Vatican II, when the Protestants at VII basically wrecked it. There is a reason that worship is done in a certain way, and if you are not doing it that way, then you are not a "figure of the true."
Protestant worship: no incense (Rev. 8: 3-4) a symbol of our prayers rising to God.
no candles (Rev. 2:5) symbolic of Christ, the Light of the world
no Eucharist (John 6: 54) a command of Christ for all generations
no baptism into the covenant community, which replaces circumcision as the rite of covenant entrance (Col. 2: 12-13) and union with Christ. (Romans 6:3)
no priests, who are mediators between God and man and have the authority given to them to forgive sins (John 20:23)
no altars in their congregational houses (Rev. 6:9, 8:3, etc)
no special garments for the priests, symbolizing God's authority upon them.
no honor to the Theotokos (Rev. 12: 1-5) the God bearer.
Instead of these and other things, which go back to the time of the origination of the Christian faith, there have been substituted man's ideas, some of them, such as in the Bob Jones Fundamentalism out of which I came, downright ridiculous, such as no going to movies or long hair on men or drinking any kind of spirit beverage.
Jesus said that it is His desire that all His followers be one - not hundreds or thousands, and certainly not with hundreds of different doctrines and moral teachings. He said that by our unity the world would know that the Father has sent Him.
No wonder the pagans and pragmatic atheists don't listen to us!