College of Levantine Churches

The College of Levantine Churches is a  of churches primarily within the Levantine Union. It is the largest Protestant denomination in Levantia and the second largest denomination behind the Catholic Church.

Mary
The College of Levantine Churches professes that views of Mary's, , and other related beliefs usually related to Catholic are extrabiblical claims that may or may not be held by individual believers but are not necessary to the Christian life. This position, known as the "Collegiate Compromise", was designed to reconcile the traditional beliefs of the and  segments of the Church with the more conventionally  views. Under this posisition, the College of Levantine Churches makes no definitive claim on the truth of these concepts but rejects the importance placed upon them by the Catholic Church.

History
In 1954, following the formal establishment of the Levantine Union, the College of Levantine Churches was established by the Association of Old Believers, the Lutheran Church of Dericania, and the Old Catholic Association of Levantia. These groups had been collaborating to various degrees during the early 20th century and had grown closer during the Second Great War, when they offered united relief services as well as a united front on teachings about the war. The official Chantric organization in Levantia joined at the end of the year, with the Methodist Church of Corcra joining in 1958 and several other churches joining in the intervening decades. The College was intended to be a formalized, though loose, communion of the major churches in Levantia with an. The Churches mutually recognized each others ordinations and validity and also agreed to a broad agreement of faith. The 1954 Agreement, signed between the members, established a Congress of Bishops intended to meet irregularly to resolve issues as they arose, while leaving individual churches to govern themselves autonomously.

Old Believers
"Old Believers", in the context of Levantine, describes a varied number of beliefs and sects associated with descent from the Ænglish Church, the Protestant state church of the Ænglish Kingdom prior to its destruction in the Nordmontaine War. The Ænglish Church established a moderate position between Catholic practice and teaching and beliefs. A hierarchical church, the Ænglish Church was established as a continuation of the established Catholic Church in Anglei prior to the reformation, and retained much of its structure and outward rituals. Accordingly, Ænglish Church adherents retained a sense of "" as opposed to many other reformed denominations.

With the destruction of the Ænglish realm in the Nordmontaine War, the vast majority of its adherents left Levantia for Pharisedoms such as Alstin, either as refugees or being deported there. Many more were sent abroad by the Dragonnades or converted back to the Catholic Church. Only a very small number of Ænglish Church adherents remained in the Ænglish duchies or Levantia as a whole by 1600. Of these, the vast majority publicly feigned adherence to the Catholic Church while meeting in secret to hold Ænglish-language liturgies according to the. A small minority departed organized society to live as small sects living in the mountains and hills, living in a manner closer to tribes. The so-called "Wild Old Believers" were probably never more than a few hundred, but stories of rabid s living in the wild remained the subject of popular Levantine legends and as for centuries to come. Throughout the 1600s and 1700s, the Imperial Inquisition managed to root out dozens of cells of Old Believers, with few remaining by the 1790s. The separate nature of these cells meant a divergence of beliefs, with many groups becoming more reformed and eventually drifting away to more outwardly reformed underground groups. Most of the clergy during the underground period were either non-ordained volunteers, Catholic priests who had fallen away, or a rare cleric from Alstin.

Old Believers received a significant boon with the Treaty of Lariana. The Treaty of Lariana allowed for a significant influx of Chantric clergy whom could operate openly without the interference of the Imperial Inquisition; many Old Believers now partook in legal Chantric liturgies, which, although divergent from the Levantine practice, were preferable due to their legal status. Many faith leaders of the Old Believer community were also secretly ordained by Chantric clergy during this period. Like many other Protestant groups during the early 19th century, the Old Believers also benefitted greatly from the Alstin loophole

In 1890, the the newly founded United Angle States created a limited legal framework under which Old Believers could worship, streamlining the unenforced Inquisitorial laws, legal patchwork of Lariana-descended allowances, and other provisions. The legalization occurred within the context of, as the small country hoped to engage this previously persecuted Ænglish minority group. The legalization had the intention - and effect - of bringing some Old Believers back to Anglei and boosting the population and economy in the country. In late 1890, the Association of Old Believers was established out of a number of the most prominent Old Believer communities in with leadership under the Bishop of Stretton, the only bishopric legally allowed. This organization represented the first time Old Believers received legal recognition in Levantia or any former Ænglish territory since the destruction of the Ænglish Church in the 1540s. The Association had a contentious first two decades as divergent groups had wildly different liturgical and doctrinal practices, with most of its teachings still rooted in the 1520s Acts of Godwin supplemented with work done by Chantric theologians in the intervening time. The Association convened a Convocation in 1915 which streamlined its theology and reunited most of its constituent groups under a Doctrine of Fifty Points. By this time, the Association, though small, was growing, and had faith communities erected throughout the Holy Levantine Empire and Ultmar. By 1950, it's estimated that the Association had 125,000 adherents.

Partial communions
The College of Levantine Churches has established, within its ecclesiology, the concept of "partial communion". Churches in partial communion with the College of Levantine Churches are recognized as having "valid historic episcopacy and clerical ordination" and whose theology "is substantially similar" to that of the College, even if it possesses "specific cultural or traditional methods of exploring and explaining theological concepts", meaning that the church in question largely teaches the same doctrine with some minor differences in expression. These differences in expression may prevent full communion, but partial communion churches are viewed, nonetheless, to have some share in the role of the.