I never got the impression that there was a real split. I think it was more of a case of geographical necessity dictating a head of the Church for each region--same as waaaaay back in the early days of the Catholic Church, when it was so hard to get information around reliably that there were multiple Patriarchs.

Which would explain why relations between the Patriarch and Matriarch seem fairly cordial, aside from a bit of personality conflict.

But the thing is, it seems pretty obvious that the East is the older, more established region. Bigger population centers, the county seat of Merentha, Gerald's presence...so then why would there be no members of his own Order in the East? Was that branch all killed in the War against the Forest, and never re-established due to disagreements about using the fae? But then as one of you pointed out, the training of priests in sorcery seems to be a new project...so I'm confused...