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College of Levantine Churches: Difference between revisions
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The '''College of Levantine Churches''' is a {{wp|Protestant}} {{wp|Full communion|communion}} of churches primarily within the [[Levantine Union]]. It is the largest Protestant denomination in [[Levantia]] and the second largest denomination behind the [[Catholic Church]]. Members of the College of Levantine Churches are typically referred to using the term "Collegiate", though this term is not used in any official Church capacity. | The '''College of Levantine Churches''' is a {{wp|Protestant}} {{wp|Full communion|communion}} of churches primarily within the [[Levantine Union]]. It is the largest Protestant denomination in [[Levantia]] and the second largest Levantine denomination behind the [[Catholic Church]]. It is one of the world's largest Christian denominations. Members of the College of Levantine Churches are typically referred to using the term "Collegiate", though this term is not used in any official Church capacity. | ||
==Ecclesiology and polity== | ==Ecclesiology and polity== | ||
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Adherents of the [[Chantry of Alstin]] were first recorded in [[Levantia]] in 1670, though commerce from Alstin reached Levantia as early as 1579 and presumably Chantric beliefs may have been present among the merchants, with commercial activity continuing on an irregular basis until the [[Treaty of Lariana]] in [[1806]]. Chantric clergy arrived following the Treaty and were allowed to offer worship services, though initially these services were offered for the benefit of and mostly attended by Alstinian diplomatic personnel and merchants. By the late 1810s, it became local embassy policy for native Levantine Protestants to be allowed entry into these services, and by the 1820s it was encouraged alongside the embrace of the [[Alstin loophole]], allowing for diplomatic protection of Protestant services if an Alstinian official was present. While the official presence of Alstin within Levantia helped other groups find some legal protection, Chantric Christianity itself quickly became the most prevalent and widely accessible form of Protestantism in Levantia, with worship services being held in the open and clerics being able to operate publicly, if somewhat limited to their proximity to Alstinian activity. | Adherents of the [[Chantry of Alstin]] were first recorded in [[Levantia]] in 1670, though commerce from Alstin reached Levantia as early as 1579 and presumably Chantric beliefs may have been present among the merchants, with commercial activity continuing on an irregular basis until the [[Treaty of Lariana]] in [[1806]]. Chantric clergy arrived following the Treaty and were allowed to offer worship services, though initially these services were offered for the benefit of and mostly attended by Alstinian diplomatic personnel and merchants. By the late 1810s, it became local embassy policy for native Levantine Protestants to be allowed entry into these services, and by the 1820s it was encouraged alongside the embrace of the [[Alstin loophole]], allowing for diplomatic protection of Protestant services if an Alstinian official was present. While the official presence of Alstin within Levantia helped other groups find some legal protection, Chantric Christianity itself quickly became the most prevalent and widely accessible form of Protestantism in Levantia, with worship services being held in the open and clerics being able to operate publicly, if somewhat limited to their proximity to Alstinian activity. | ||
By 1845, there was a significant enough Chantric population in [[Levantia]] - possibly as high as 10,000 Levantines - to warrant a reorganization of Church function there. Previously, clerics associated with embassies or merchants were assigned largely on an ad hoc basis, serving very limited time abroad and returning to [[Alstin]] to their normal parish functions. In 1846, the [[Imperial Diet]] - in the midst of the [[Third Caroline War]] and needing to maintain good relations abroad - gave the government of Alstin, and by extension the Chantry, permission to organize a formal hierarchy in Levantia. This permission came with a strict prohibition on missionary activity and disallowance of "prosletyzing...in any manner". This had the effect of creating a less open method of joining the Chantric Church than had existed in decades prior as local clerics sought to avoid confrontations with the [[Imperial Inquisition]], but committed Protestants were still able to join with some commitment. Historians have uncovered specific episodes of Chantric clergy offering {{wp|bribes}} to local and Inquisitorial authorities in exchange for ignoring their growing populations, though it is unclear how widespread this practice was. The 1846 permission from the Diet lead to the adoption by the Chantry, in late 1846, of the Instrument of Organization in Levantia, which established a Bishop of Ericaner (in modern [[ | By 1845, there was a significant enough Chantric population in [[Levantia]] - possibly as high as 10,000 Levantines - to warrant a reorganization of Church function there. Previously, clerics associated with embassies or merchants were assigned largely on an ad hoc basis, serving very limited time abroad and returning to [[Alstin]] to their normal parish functions. In 1846, the [[Imperial Diet]] - in the midst of the [[Third Caroline War]] and needing to maintain good relations abroad - gave the government of Alstin, and by extension the Chantry, permission to organize a formal hierarchy in Levantia. This permission came with a strict prohibition on missionary activity and disallowance of "prosletyzing...in any manner". This had the effect of creating a less open method of joining the Chantric Church than had existed in decades prior as local clerics sought to avoid confrontations with the [[Imperial Inquisition]], but committed Protestants were still able to join with some commitment. Historians have uncovered specific episodes of Chantric clergy offering {{wp|bribes}} to local and Inquisitorial authorities in exchange for ignoring their growing populations, though it is unclear how widespread this practice was. The 1846 permission from the Diet lead to the adoption by the Chantry, in late 1846, of the Instrument of Organization in Levantia, which established a Bishop of Ericaner (in modern [[Rhotia]]) as head of the Chantry in Levantia, formally the ecclesiastical "Province of Dericania and the Vandarch". As a result, the Chantry's local church in Levantia took the popular name the "Provincial Church", though this name was never used in any official capacity. Along with a formal episcopate, the Chantry also assigned 25 permanent clerics to Levantia to serve under the Bishop, and gave the Bishop wide authority to ordain deacons and priests as needed. The Instrument of Organization created the first public-facing Protestant church organization in the [[Holy Levantine Empire]] since the end of the [[Great Confessional War]]. As was the case before, the public availability of the Chantry greatly increased its accessibility and desirability to local Protestants, with 50,000 adherents by 1900 and many native-born Chantric clergy being organized between 1846 and 1900. | ||
As religious laws began to be eased by the end of the 19th century, the competitive advantage the Chantry in Levantia enjoyed declined, and accordingly its growth rate tapered off to begin the 20th century. While it remained the most prestigious Protestant Church in the Holy Levantine Empire, it began to lose ground to groups with localized influences and traditions. The Chantry's position of leadership among Protestant churches was enhanced by the Association of Old Believers, a Protestant group in [[Anglei]], deciding to join formal communion with the Chantry in 1922, bolstering both the local Chantry leadership as well as the Chantry's overall position in Levantia. By 1950, it retained its position of prestige and influence over Levantine Protestantism, but had fallen behind in terms of having the most adherents, having about 85,000 members by that year. The hierarchy in Levantia and [[Alstin]] were reluctant to join the Church to the emerging College established in 1954, but the local adherents and even most clergy felt more of an affinity for Levantine interests than Alstinian ones. By the end of 1954, the Province of Dericania and the Vandarch was given permission to formally join the College of Levantine Churches. As a result, the Chantry's independent church in Levantia ceased to exist, but its two local churches - the Province as well as the Old Believers - were joined together, and the College as a result entered into partial communion with the [[Chantry of Alstin]] as a condition for the Provincial Church joining the College. | As religious laws began to be eased by the end of the 19th century, the competitive advantage the Chantry in Levantia enjoyed declined, and accordingly its growth rate tapered off to begin the 20th century. While it remained the most prestigious Protestant Church in the Holy Levantine Empire, it began to lose ground to groups with localized influences and traditions. The Chantry's position of leadership among Protestant churches was enhanced by the Association of Old Believers, a Protestant group in [[Anglei]], deciding to join formal communion with the Chantry in 1922, bolstering both the local Chantry leadership as well as the Chantry's overall position in Levantia. By 1950, it retained its position of prestige and influence over Levantine Protestantism, but had fallen behind in terms of having the most adherents, having about 85,000 members by that year. The hierarchy in Levantia and [[Alstin]] were reluctant to join the Church to the emerging College established in 1954, but the local adherents and even most clergy felt more of an affinity for Levantine interests than Alstinian ones. By the end of 1954, the Province of Dericania and the Vandarch was given permission to formally join the College of Levantine Churches. As a result, the Chantry's independent church in Levantia ceased to exist, but its two local churches - the Province as well as the Old Believers - were joined together, and the College as a result entered into partial communion with the [[Chantry of Alstin]] as a condition for the Provincial Church joining the College. | ||
====Lutheran Church of Dericania==== | ====Lutheran Church of Dericania==== | ||
The Lutheran Church of Dericania is the oldest original component of the College of Levantine Churches, being the only part to have been a continually extant pre-[[Great Confessional War]] church. It was the earliest {{wp|Lutheran}} church in the [[Holy Levantine Empire]] and by [[1527]] it was the established church of more than a dozen principalities and polities within [[Dericania]] out of the very first wave of Protestant reformers. As early Lutheran churches, these established churches took on many of the visual aesthetic and daily traditions of the Catholic Church while gradually developing their Protestant theology. These established churches were established in union with eachother as part of an effort to resist the established [[Catholic Church]], and its hierarchy served in diplomatic roles to help organize the [[Protestant Union]]. | |||
Following the Great Confessional War, the Lutheran Church was disestablished, its noble adherents removed from power, and its followers persecuted by the [[Dragonnades]]. The Church lost the vast majority of its adherents by [[1590]], but some of its clergy continued to operate underground. Modern adherents of Lutheran theology are divided on the topic of {{wp|Apostolic succession}}, although the College as a whole and the since-established Fraternal Church embrace it. Accordingly, the Fraternal Church believes that the underground Lutheran communities of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries maintained an unbroken chain of Apostolic succession in its underground communities throughout the period of persecution. Unlike [[Urcea]] and the partitioned [[Anglei|Ænglish duchies]], central authority was completely absent in Dericania throughout most of its later history. Accordingly, the underground Lutheran groups used the fractal nature of Dericania to avoid persecution and capture, making efficient use of competing jurisdictional boundaries in many cases and moving from one principality to another to survive. | |||
In the late 1650s, the [[Imperial Inquisition]] was given legal immediacy everywhere in the Empire for the purpose of hunting heretics to solve this problem, leading to the most intense phase of Lutheran persecution between 1660 and 1710, from which few groups remained in tact. Unlike most other components of the College, few Lutherans went abroad, but many did temporarily during this fifty year period. By the early 18th century, it was believed the problem was eradicated and the Inquisition lost significant resources and authority. After 1710, many Lutherans found it easier to gather once again, and many the children of those who fled abroad returned by 1730. During the 18th century, many princes in Dericania who adhered to the new [[Kilikas Enlightenment]] sheltered Protestant groups generally and Lutherans specifically, allowing these communities to largely recover. The [[Treaty of Lariana]] in the 19th century gave legal cover to these princes, leading to many more Deric princes to give shelter to Lutherans. Throughout the 19th century, the Imperial Inquisition weakened significantly as nationalist concerns and other internal fissure points within the Empire lead to a loosening of religious laws. Accordingly, the Lutherans began to come out of hiding. A provisional Lutheran Church of Dericania was established by agreement in [[1869]] between the largest communities. The provisional church took the unusual step of creating a commission of historians and scholars to determine the historic legitimacy and continuation of the various extant Lutheran sects throughout Dericania, with the goal of establishing clear lines of ordination in order to enhance the church's claims. The full Lutheran Church of Dericania was constituted out of those groups the commission deemed historic in [[1873]], and by [[1880]] most of the other groups agreed to merge their communities, if not their clerics, into the Lutheran Church. | |||
Despite their early origin and prestige, the Lutherans had the least political or practical protection during the period between the [[Great Confessional War]] and [[Treaty of Lariana]], and their failure to flee abroad have been a contentious historical point among many modern Collegiate scholars. Accordingly, by 1900, the reestablished Lutheran Church of Dericania had no more than 15,000 adherents. | |||
====Independent Catholic Association of Levantia==== | ====Independent Catholic Association of Levantia==== | ||
Self-identified independent Catholic groups have a long history in modern [[Levantia]]. Due to the widespread prevalence and social dominance of the [[Catholic Church]] throughout the [[Levantine Union]], many groups who have otherwise separated from the authority of the [[Pope]] have nonetheless retained a self-proclaimed "Catholic" identity. The largest concentration of these groups are "{{wp|Old Catholic Church|old Catholic}}" in nature, that is, individual communities and churches who separated from the Catholic Church over the issue of {{wp|Papal infallibility}} as defined at the {{wp|First Vatican Council}}. | Self-identified independent Catholic groups have a long history in modern [[Levantia]]. Due to the widespread prevalence and social dominance of the [[Catholic Church]] throughout the [[Levantine Union]], many groups who have otherwise separated from the authority of the [[Pope]] have nonetheless retained a self-proclaimed "Catholic" identity. The largest concentration of these groups are "{{wp|Old Catholic Church|old Catholic}}" in nature, that is, individual communities and churches who separated from the Catholic Church over the issue of {{wp|Papal infallibility}} as defined at the {{wp|First Vatican Council}}. The second largest group are the so-called "national" churches which formed throughout Levantia in the 19th century as part of the broader nationalist and Romantic movement. The most prominent of these was the National Catholic Church of the Vandarch, which achieved legal recognition as a minority religion in [[Hollona and Diorisia]] in [[1883]] and espoused national supremacy over union with the [[Pope]] and achieved as much as ten percent of the population as members by [[1900]], though declining thereafter. The "Vandarch church", as a legally recognized organization, held pride of place and prestige within independent Catholic circles, with the national Bishop of Rheydt assuming an unofficial role as spokesman for independent Catholics. These national groups largely maintained the same theology and {{wp|ecclesiology}} as the Catholic Church, with concerns for political independence driving their foundation. Finally, a smaller number of self-identified "old" Catholic communities existed in rural parts of eastern [[Rhotia]], with most scholars describing their position as {{wp|Jansenist}}. | ||
As the number of independent Catholic groups increased at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, calls for unity outside of that with [[Papal State|Urceopolis]] were echoed throughout many of these groups. The National Catholic Church of the Vandarch took the lead on attempting to organize these efforts. In [[1924]], four different Old Catholic Churches and six various independent and national Churches met at the Synod of Rheydt in [[Hollona and Diorisia]] with the intent of forming a loose association between the groups, with common ordination and mutually recognized {{wp|Apostolic succession}}. These groups founded the Independent Catholic Association effective 1 January 1925, and organization which changed its name to the Independent Catholic Association of Levantia in [[1935]] during the [[Second Great War]]. | |||
====Methodist Church of Corcra==== | ====Methodist Church of Corcra==== | ||
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===Mission Areas=== | ===Mission Areas=== | ||
In addition to the organization of the College in [[Levantia]], the College has erected "Mission Areas", administrative jurisdictions outside Levantia for the purpose of missionary activity and spreading the faith. The majority of active mission areas in the late 2020s are in [[ | In addition to the organization of the College in [[Levantia]], the College has erected "Mission Areas", administrative jurisdictions outside Levantia for the purpose of missionary activity and spreading the faith. The majority of active mission areas in the late 2020s are in [[Audonia]], with a sizeable and growing number being in [[Crona]]. Mission Areas function under a shared jurisdictional basis, with individual congregations and metropole-like "regions" functioning in an area, while a growing number of missions also include independently operating "faith engagement groups", non-clerical organizations of volunteers which preach to local populations. The faith engagement groups are known to be more {{wp|Evangelical Christian|Evangelical}} in theological outlook and temperament than the primary Collegiate hierarchy. | ||
As of 2028, 12 Mission Areas existed serving 19 different sovereign entities. Of these, | As of 2028, 12 Mission Areas existed serving 19 different sovereign entities. Of these, 7 are in [[Audonia]], 4 are in [[Crona]], and 1 is in [[Polynesia]]. Three of the four mission areas in Crona were established between 2015 and 2026, and these three serve the [[Nysdra Sea]] region including [[Cusinaut]] and now [[Varshan]] as well as other adjoining regions. The one mission area in [[Polynesia]] is exclusive to the area of [[Stenza]]. | ||
==Ecumenical relations== | ==Ecumenical relations== | ||
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{{Main|Chantry of Alstin}} | {{Main|Chantry of Alstin}} | ||
===Partners in the Church Invisible=== | ===Partners in the Church Invisible=== | ||
Partners in the Church Invisible (commonly referred to as "PCIs") are Christian Churches with whom the College does not share communion, but nonetheless recognizes as having some valid {{wp|Apostolic succession}} as well as legitimate exercise of the Christian ministry and sacraments. The primary organization falling under the status of PCI is the [[Catholic Church]], though recognition was extended to the [[Imperial Church]] during its existence and, controversially, the [[Democratic Christian Church of | Partners in the Church Invisible (commonly referred to as "PCIs") are Christian Churches with whom the College does not share communion, but nonetheless recognizes as having some valid {{wp|Apostolic succession}} as well as legitimate exercise of the Christian ministry and sacraments. The primary organization falling under the status of PCI is the [[Catholic Church]], though recognition was extended to the [[Imperial Church]] during its existence and, controversially, the [[Democratic Christian Church of Daxia and the East]]. | ||
[[Category: Religion]] | [[Category: Religion]] | ||
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