College of Levantine Churches: Difference between revisions

Although commonly thought of as a sacrament, the College primarily teaches that it is likely not a sacrament due to its anti-{{wp|Sacerdotalism|sacerdotalist}} understanding of the Christian faithful, teaching that holy orders is a conveyance of a sacred trust to bishops and clerics while arguing that Christ alone is the mediator of the Christian faithful. Despite this, the College teaches that holy orders nonetheless has a "sacramental character" confering the status of {{Wp|Apostolic succession|successor of the Apostles}}. The sacramental character of the act is confirmed, according to Collegiate teaching, by Christ's historical call of the twelve apostles. Minority views within the Collegiate argue for Holy Orders as a true sacrament due to its source in the Gospels and sacramental character, with many proponents of its status as a sacrament originating in the successors of pre-merger Old Catholic circles.

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 [[Chantry of Alstin|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 {{wp|Protestant}} churches in [[Levantia]] with an {{wp|Episcopal polity}}. The Churches mutually recognized each others ordinations and validity. The agreement included a long preamble establishing the basic shared tenets of the faith, and this preamble remains the primary confessional document of the College through today. 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. The College grew rapidly and incorporated both Levantine diaspora communities as well as organized Protestant communities abroad, with the Province of Sarpedon being established in [[1960]]. Foreign missions began not long after the signing of the 1954 Agreement.

In 1890, the the newly founded [[Anglei|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 {{wp|nation building}}, 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 [[Chantry of Alstin|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]]. The Association formally entered communion with the [[Chantry of Alstin]] in [[1922]]. By 1950, it's estimated that the Association had 125,000 adherents. It was a founding member of the College in 1954, having worked closely with the Old Catholic Association of Levantia since its inception for mutual ordination and consecrations and the Lutheran Church of Dericania on political matters relating to the [[Third Fratricide]].

Following nearly two decades of function, it was clear to College leaders and observers that the organization had been a success. The success necessitated the need for change, however, as the original vision of a loosely aligned association of mostly independent Churches was not the structure best serving the needs of the faithful. By the early 1960s, co-mingling of many congregations and clergy had begun in earnest. In some areas, churches began to close and merge as smaller congregations of different branches of the College - especially Chantric Christians and Old Believers - began to worship as one congregation. These began as one-off arrangements agreed to between the Episcopal Congregations mostly to suit the needs of rural or remote congregations, but by the late 1960s consolidation requests became commonplace. It became clear to Church leaders that the political and historic differences between many of the Episcopal Congregations were just that; largely self-imposed. Once the groups were bounded together by a common communion, differences began to rapidly melt away, especially among the four primary "high liturgical" groups - the Old Believers, the Chantists, the Old Catholics, and Lutherans. Consolidation in remote and rural areas was joined in the late 1960s by the "congregation wars" in large cities. As adherents of the four largest Episcopal Congregations began to view their churches as mostly interchangeable, some congregations began to poach believers from other Collegiate Congregations due to a number of factors including convenient locations of churches and newly built structures capable of comfortably holding much larger congregations. While consolidation was viewed positively, the congregation wars were viewed negatively by the public and Church leaders, and by 1970 it became clear that serious structural reform of the Church was needed.  

In summer 1973, the Congress of Bishops met and agreed to meet later that year in {{wp|plenary session}} as a standing body of the Church, reforming itself from an ad hoc arbitrating body to a full blown authority in the Church. The five Episcopal Congregations met that summer and all gave their approval for the Congress to meet in this fashion and make changes to the structure of the College as set forth in the 1954 agreement. While the original concept behind the standing session was to create new streamlined methods for consolidation and giving the Congress the authority to mediate the congregation wars, it would soon take a life of its own. With all of the Bishops of the College gathered in [[Corcra]] in November 1973, the initial recommendations proposed to it by the meeting earlier in the year were debated but surprisingly set aside. The Bishops residing together in close confines, speaking to each other for the first time in many cases, lead to a new spirit of reform and change, and the Congress resolved to expand its mandate and fully reform the College. The session would continue through early 1974, during which time congregation consolidations increased in pace as the public became aware of major changes coming to the College. By March 1974, the Congress of Bishops voted on a comprehensive reform package that took the unprecedented step of merging four of the five Episcopal Conferences into one Fraternal Church, a high church liturgy amalgamation of the former Old Believer, Chantist, Old Catholic, and Lutheran congregations. The Bishops also voted to reform local governance of the Church by creating "Metropoles". The changes were ratified by the Episcopal Conferences by June 1974 and took effect 1 December, 1974.

The largest change of the 1974 Reform was the establishment of the Episcopal Congregation of the Fraternal Church, merging together four separate institutions - the Chantist, Old Catholic, Lutheran, and Old Believer churches - into a single continuum of worship and governance. The {{wp|high church}} liturgical commonalities of these churches was apparent to both scholars and adherents by the early 20th century, given their origin as derivations of the old liturgy of the [[Anglei#The_Ænglish_Church|Ænglish Church]], which itself was derived from the {{wp|pre-Tridentine Mass}}. Once the College was formed and the theological differences between these four groups were set aside, calls were made as early as 1958 for dissolution of the boundaries between the churches, but calls were not taken seriously until late 1960s, and it was thought to be decades away before the Congress of Bishops suddenly instituted the merger in 1974. Recognition of ordination and streamlining {{wp|Holy Orders}} of the four churches occurred in [[1964]] in what is now viewed as the precursor of the establishment of the Fraternal Church.