Abrigalasts

Scripture	The Bible
Polity	Connexional

The Abrigalasts (from the Coscivian abris galastor, "submission/surrender to a higher authority") are a movement of Christian religious congregations characterised by their categorical rejection of politics - here defined not only as governmental affairs and elections, but all forms of contentious group decision-making, including in ecclesiastical matters. They are noted for their use of cleromancy and sortition, which they believe are the only Scripturally-prescribed method for resolving questions on which there is no clear religious teaching or group consensus. Furthermore, they profess the priesthood of all believers and have no ordained clergy or ministers in the conventional sense, instead periodically selecting bishops and pastors by sortition. Abrigalasts embrace ideas such as Christian anarchism and Christian pacifism in various forms.

Although it is currently unclear precisely where the movement began and who its founders may have been, the movement arose in Levantia sometime during the [17th or 18th] century AD, and gained popularity in certain remote rural areas of the continent. Suppression by Levantine Catholic state and clerical authorities were mostly successful, with most Abrigalasts reverting to Catholicism or going into exile in Kiravia or certain North Levantine countries such as Covinia.

Since its earliest recorded history, the Abrigalast movement has been extremely fissile, sundering into a great many sub-denominations over disputes such as the proper use and methods of cleromancy, the degree to which Christians are called to abjure from interaction with human laws and governments and those who submit to them, and numerous other issues. Some moderate Abrigalasts, such as the First Submitting Church of Primóra, abstain from voting, military service, and contesting lawsuits, but otherwise abide by civil and administrative laws of the countries where they live. Other groups make greater efforts to avoid interaction with the temporal power, and may object to civil registration, land registration, and payment of taxes. The most extreme Abrigalast churches seek to live as free from civil authority as possible, and the Kiravian Health Executive estimates that there may over 1,000 radical Abrigalasts living completely off-the-grid in Rhuon and the Western Highlands to avoid civil registration and use of government roads or currency. Abrigalasts' drive to detach themselves from political society has pushed them to settle in many remote and inhospitable locations throughout Ixnay.

Beliefs

Due to the absence of a unifying doctrinal authority and an intense proclivity for denominational fission, no creed or confession reflects the beliefs of all Abrigalasts, and the movement is defined more in terms of its practices than its theological tenets. However, several articles of faith are held in common among all but the most heterodox and divergent groups.

The default theological foundations of Abrigalast churches are Trinitarian and Chalcedonian.

Kiravian writers typically classify the Abrigalasts as a proto-Protestant or "para-Protestant" movement, rather than Protestants proper, whereas Catholic Levantine writers typically describe them as "folk Protestants". Over time, many congregations (especially smaller ones outside of the large, established settlement areas) have either drifted toward more conventional Protestant views or formally adopted Protestant creeds, particularly those of a Calvinistic orientation.

In general, Abrigalasts conserve most sacraments of the Catholic Church, albeit without a sacerdotal understanding and with radically different implementation. Baptism of infants is universally practised; in the Serikordan Purchases it is a congregational affair performed by the pastor of the week, while in Suderavia it is generally performed by fathers or midwives shortly after birth. Confirmation has special significance, as confirmed believers become eligible for sortition. Reconciliation is a public affair, and confession of sins is made regularly to the assembled congregation in a revival of early Christian practice.

Justification for Distinctive Practices

[Under construction]

Church and Community Governance

There are two leadership offices in Abrigalast churches: Pastors and Bishops. Both pastors and bishops are chosen periodically by sortition from among the church's membership. Pastors are usually sortitioned^{[is this a word?]} on a weekly basis and bishops on a monthly basis. Some churches allow women to be selected as pastors and fewer as bishops, but most do not. In all sub-denominations, the pastor's primary (and sometimes only) role is to supervise and officiate over the casting of lots. In congregations that handle money, the pastor is typically responsible for taking up collection and taking care of the proceeds. In many churches, the pastor also has some role in leading or organising prayer services in the fashion of a lay preacher, and in more liturgically-oriented churches the pastor's role may superficially resemble that of a Catholic priest. A bishop's primary responsibility is to supervise the sortition of pastors, though in more structured congregations they take on administrative duties and act as procedural facilitators in business meetings. In "Abiding churches" (those that fully comply with civil authority but abstain from politics), pastors and bishops serve as officers of their congregation's registered association for civil purposes and sign documents and cheques on behalf of the congregation.

Traditionally, pastors select lectors, doorkeepers, ushers, etc. from among the confirmed members of their flock by sortition, though smaller and more minimalist groups dispense with this.

Currents within Abrigalastism

• Integrism vs. Secularism - Integrist congregations believe that the congregation should be a cohesive economic and social unit as well as a religious one, and that decisions on temporal matters should be agreed to or cast upon at church meetings. Secular congregations believe that economic and social matters should be handled at separate "business meetings" or left to individual families to work out organically. All integrist congregations engage in or aspire to some form of communal or coöperative living. Secular congregations can also engage in communal/coöperative living, though some (called "homesteader churches") have abandoned collective economics entirely.

Currents related to cleromancy and sortition:

• Bracketism - Use of a single-elimination bracket to structure cleromancy, allowing congregations to apolitically resolve complex questions with multiple possible solutions. Most Abrigalasts reject brackets as an innovation that compromises the essence of their religious praxis. However, in congregations that practice communal or coöperative living, bracketism is shown to correlate positively with sustained growth, adherent retention, and various measures of economic prosperity, and to reduce the frequency of congregational schisms.
• Urrimism-Thummimism - Use of light and dark stones to decide upon binary questions.
• Octoglobalism - Use of an icosahedral die suspended in fluid inside a ceramic orb for cleromancy.

Currents related to civil authority:

• Abiding churches - Congregations whose members abstain from voting, political activity, and military service, but otherwise abide by civil laws where they live, register with the authorities, and pay taxes.
• Removing churches - Congregations who take active measures to minimise their contact with political society, often by settling in remote and lightly-governed areas, but still abide by the civil authority when strictly necessary, if only to the most limited extent practicable. Removing Abrigalasts opt out of government programmes such as social insurance wherever possible and avail themselves of religious exemptions to public mandates where available.
• Defiant churches - Congregations who reject the legitimacy of civil authority on principle. Abrigalasts of this current may refuse civil registration or engage in tax resistance In extreme cases, Defiant Abrigalasts refuse to handle money or use public roads.

Abrigalasts around the World

Covina and Suderavia

There were an estimated 9,000 Abrigalasts living in Covina in 1990 AD, down from a peak of around 30,000 in 18XX. Covina was a major destination for Abrigalasts fleeing persecution in South Levantia, and the refugees were welcomed by the Covine government, which sought settlers willing to cultivate some of the country's more marginal lands. The largest concentration were found on the island of Suderavia, where many lived in the island's mountainous, inhospitable interior.

After Suderavia won independence from Covina in the 1990s and was subsequently integrated with the Kiravian Federacy, the new state passed laws borrowed from Serikorda to accommodate the Abrigalasts and provide civil administration for their settlements conflicting minimally with their beliefs. Most Suderavian Abrigalasts do not respond to the Federal Census, but there are estimated to be about 5,000, with around 60% living in Abrigalast settlements. Although they are mainly of Levantine ancestry, Suderavian Abrigalasts have spoken Suderavian Coscivian as their native language for centuries.

Kiravian Federacy

Serikorda and the Purchases

The oldest, largest, and most stable Abrigalast communities are located in the mountains of Serikorda State, living in six communities known as the Sortitionist Purchases. The two largest Purchases, Xtown and Ycrest, contain multiple villages and congregations selecting a single bishop, while the rest - Zburg, Qville, Wham, and Ubury, are centred on a single congregation. In terms of religious and communal life, the six Purchases differ from one another in numerous points of detail, but all can be broadly described as practicing a "Traditional Serikordan Abrigalastism" (Intîrix Serikordax Abrigalastōrisēn) that combines a fairly orthodox Trinitarian theology and a moderately Removalist and Insular stance on world-denial with traditional methods of cleromancy and sortition. Qville is an exception in that it has become an Abiding church in recent years. Ycrest, Zburg, amd Ubury are Integralist, whereas Wham, Qville, and most congregations in Xtown conduct church meetings and business meetings separately. Abrigalasts in the Purchases have traditionally followed a communal agrarian lifestyle, though in the modern era only a small minority are full-time farmers and most men seek employment outside of the community at some point in their lives. Most of the Purchases have worked to start new communal enterprises - often involving handicrafts, artisan food products, and tourism - though Ubury, the smallest and most insular Purchase, has not.

These areas were settled by Abrigalast immigrants from Covina and Suderavia in the [DECADES], and were welcomed by the state government to promote development in marginal highland areas. Although they are not municipal bodies, the Purchases have special status under the state's local governance statutes in order to allow them to administer many local services without conforming to normal political structures like town meetings and local elections. This status is contingent on the land remaining owned by a religious body and admitting only members of that body as residents. In 21202, Qville Purchase gave up its special status in order to open some of its land up to real estate development. Over the course of their existence, the Purchases have constantly exported emigrants due to population pressure, economic difficulties, and schisms within the congregations. Some Abrigalasts have settled nearby and remained members of their home congregation, while others have calved off new congregations, many of them scattered further afield. The overwhelming majority of Abrigalast communities in Kiravia can trace their origins back to the Purchases. During the past century the Purchases have experienced dramatic population decline due to attrition from the movement and emigration of members to other areas. Persecution by the Kirosocialist régime, which abrogated the Purchases' special status and refused to make religious accommodations in public administration or allow conscientious objection to military service, absolutely decimated the Purchases by conscripting or imprisoning much of the workforce, forcing many children into state boarding schools, and inducing many residents to flee to other areas or leave the movement entirely. However, this persecution also had a conservatising effect on those who remained, instilling a greater antipathy towards the State and distrust towards outsiders.

E.D.S. Nígatelluv, a professor of religious studies at Deréssuv University and eminent authority on the Abrigalasts, estimates that as little as 35% of Serikorda's Abrigalasts live in the Purchases or attend church there, though an additional 20% or so belong to off-purchase congregations in communion with a Purchase bishop. According to his research, the small state hosts over forty independent Abrigalast sects during a given year, with an average membership of 7 families and a median membership of 12 families. The mean figures are skewed downward by a preponderance of very small congregations, many of which prove short-lived. Nígatelluv has also brought the phenomenon of *unchurched Abrigalasts* - whether worshipping indepdendently, left behind by a dissolved congregation, or non-practicing - to scholarly attention, and claims that Kirosocialist persecution created large numbers of such people. Off-purchase Abrigalasts in Serikorda are more diverse in terms of their religious practices and lifestyle. Some members of Abiding churches in the larger towns may be indistinguishable from their neighbours, while others are much more strident than Purchase residents. Nígatelluv has observed that a great many off-purchase Abrigalasts, both men and women, work in the informal sector to avoid taxation, and that on any given day about half of the day labourers available for hire in the town of Ālkūþorn are Abrigalasts.

Kiravian Crona

Abrigalasts of Kiravian origin have lived in Crona for centuries, often arriving far ahead of formal colonisation initiatives. In 1665, twenty Abrigalast families from Serikorda's Rapperen community settled in Porfíria. Congregational fissions and population pressure spurred the migration of people descended from these settlers to form several generations of daughter communities on the advancing frontiers of Kiravian Cusinaut. Anouther founder population of Abrigalasts departed Suderavia in 1734 and settled in the Green River Colony.

There are 14 known Abrigalast congregations in Avenirskara, established by emigrants from the Serikorda Purchases during [DECADES].