The Vicean Church
The Vicean Church is one that expresses the mysteries of existence and explains the process of life and death and life beyond. While other churches have "aims" and "goals", the Vicean church focuses on the soul and faith of its members (and all peoples) and the health of the community and its church. After a few religious conflicts or magical pogroms, the Vicean Church becomes very popular with people and governments, as they avoid such things.
The Vicean Church is one that expresses the mysteries of existence and explains the process of life and death and life beyond. While other churches have "aims" and "goals", the Vicean church focuses on the soul and faith of its members and all peoples. After a few religious conflicts or magical pogroms, the Vicean Church becomes very popular with people and governments.
The Vicean Church structure is large and cumbersome, just like any church they wish to build. (It will be as big, domed, artistically interesting, and filled with as many symbolic windows and painting as possible.) While most will only see the lowly priests and their House of Deity, he will still be dressed in finest robes possible, in a symbolic color based upon the time of the year, with a shaved head (or with a nearly shaved head with a peach fuzz of a holy Vicean Symbol of an X inscribed in a circle (X)). Those in with larger Churches will see Bishops and Priests in their fine robes and such (soon to be a feature in every city or good sized town with pretenses of being important). Monasteries (holy communities) will be overseen by a Priestly-Monk overseeing laymen monks or Bishop-Monks, overseeing priestly monks and nuns. Each Diocese will have an Arch-Bishop. Each country will have two Cardinals: one to oversee the country's churches (seated cardinal) and one to work with the Vicean Council which discusses doctrine, new ideas, and runs The Church overall. The Voice of the Deity is elected by the Cardinals Council (Cohort of Red) and is the main spiritual leader of the Church.
Ritually, there are services of some degree every day of the week. Mostly are simply prayer meetings of the faithful, with the faithful talking about "right living" and their understanding of The Deity. Once a week there is a great ritual, with prayers, singing, and several lessons. Every few weeks there are Greater Rituals (requiring attendance to The Faithful) in which "greater mysteries" (and astronomically important moments in the year) are celebrated with more prayers, about the same amount of singing, more lessons, and a church social afterwards. Remember that alms are asked for at every meeting to make sure the church can "do right" for its members and the whole church.
In the Day to Day, priests assist members in "right living" which is much like being a good and lawful citizen in most places. They help people for working to be better, to do good without looking for reward, to help others who need help, and to have faith in the Deitys path of the world. For most Evil and hardship comes from not understanding the greater plan the Vicean Deity has laid out. One learns more from adversity than one does from benevolence. You just need to endure what has occurred and realize that you don't need to understand things, just to endure. It is mostly a matter of attitude and acceptance of the world. You just need to have faith that you are doing "the right thing" and that the Vicean Deity will take you into the greater world. If you have done right by the world and played your part, you will exist in eternal paradise. Demons and Evil are created by not doing right actions. They will pull you away from the paradise if you have generated any and you are reborn to the world. If you were specifically bad, you may have a layover to be tortured by demons of your own creation.
Note: The Vicean Deity is something of a mystery. Some say it is the primal god - the universal spark- that created all the other deities and the rest of the universe. Some say that it is the God within all of us (with each of use being a shard of the primal god). The theology is thick with symbolism that each could be true, both could be true, and their may be more truths reachable through prayer and contemplation. There is no "personification" of the Vicean Deity. They may call him All Father (and paint him as an elderly patriarch), but that is mostly because the Vicean Church comes from a patriarchal society. The "correct" way to do it is to paint the sun, not the sun in they sky (but that is commonly done), but the sun/ star in ones soul. Is it confusing? Yes. Of course this variability of faith allows the Vicuñas the most paths of good living (and ease of accepting ideals).
this is a big complex catholic-ask church without a martyred son. If one did show up they would sing his praises, incorporate his teachings into the convoluted mythology of the church, and go on to the main goal of the church... to have everyone in the world be a member, have everyone do right thinking, make the world a better place for everyone, a great place for the Church...oh and of course have a good Life beyond.
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? Responses (5)
very, very cool. After you read both posts, it makes major sense.
I love this!
Updated a spelling error, a punctuation error, and the two resulting capitalization errors.
You just have to love this Church. Everything for everyone, with the "sole" purpose of having the world join its church (and follow its directions).
(Note: an actual spellcheck would be good.)
They are likable pals, and very insidious at the same time. Taking the long view, they might outrun everyone else. What is their relation to Power, ie how do they cooperate with officials, and how much do they play on their influence on the people?
Yes indeed. They are "the nice guys". They have a confusing doctrine that has so many aspects you can't isolate single parts. Their doctrines can be inclusive (in some way) of every other Church. Another faith might claim they are exclusive, but the Viceans would claim they are not. The are very inclusive.
They are the religion that does not make waves. In fact, if they were said to have a dominating doctrine, that would be it. They do not make demands. They will be here forever as everyone else will offend or attack powers that be, cause distress with religious wars, and so on. They vaguely work with the government, but mostly they ignore it.
The only thing they play on their people to live rightly (be nice to each other and everyone else) and donate money. Not even a lot of money. The Church's floor is paved in pennies, to use a quote from their seminary training. They have a large congregation (and since you are allowed to be a member of their church and other faiths (as long as you are comfortable with your spirituality), they can even double dip so to speak) so they make their money "in bulk".
Since the community gets money back in good works and products purchased and building expansions made, it is good for the community to give the church its due. (Of course, they keep an administrative cut, and a small pass on to the greater church...). The congregation is only "gently" squeezed.
