| ArchLector_Sejanus | Date: Monday, 18 November 13, 6:40 PM | Message # 1 |
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| The Church of the Good Deity (Pius Dea Cult Front based in the Seswenna Sector) The Cathedral of Light  (biggest building in the Outer Rim, Church's HQ and largest place of worship can fit a congregation of up to 2.5 million)  (Above: Suspiciously Pius Dea monument and temple built by the Church 5000 years BBY on the planet Seswenna, a pilgrimage destination.)  (Above: The walls of the Ecclesiastical Quarter in Eriadu City are high, necessitated by the huge number of pilgrims and petititoners who daily wait to hand them to passing clerics entering the compound. Holo taken during a religious ceremony.)
Church Details
" the Church of the Good Deity is one that is monotheistic and has several billion members in the Seswenna Sector, mostly located on Eriadu, and goes back several thousand years in origin. We have around fifteen billion members registered on the Census as Deitians but since the religion is so old it's the cultural default for many. We have about five million active members, that is to say attending service at least once a week. Active members are suggested to pay a tithe of 10% of their income into the church, which many do, in exchange for blessings in their life from the deity.
Our members are required to follow the six solemn precepts of our faith and the five obligations of the deity, they also study the promises and the great prophesy.
The Six Precepts
- Belief in the female deity who rules and unites the universe and devotion to her worship, she is explicitly female and it is heresy to declare her male or genderless.
- The recognition that the Holy Father Church is the spiritual completion of the deity herself and so acknowledges the Church as equal to her majesty.
- Belief in the purity and superiority of Human blood
- Belief in the right of man to rule the Galaxy and is destined to do so in a manner to be revealed in time by the female deity.
- Belief in the obligation to work honestly and conscientiously for your employer.
- Belief that any suffering in this life will be rewarded in the next glorious plain of existence with ecstasy ten times as great.
The Five Obligations
- Obedience - To Church and lawful authority (in that order)
- Moderation - In all things, to not be profligate or waste.
- Generosity - To pay a tithe of at least 10% of income to the Church to help it help others, blessings of the goddess as pro-rata to tithing level.
- Honesty - To be honest and upstanding in all your dealings, and to confess sins to your preacher.
- Readiness - To lay down everything, life, money, happiness, health etc for the faith.
The Promises of the Goddess to the Faithful
- Glory in the Life Hereafter
- Blessings in this life to the faithful
- The protection of the Church from hardship and persecution
- The right to bring matters to Church courts (if between church members)
The Great Prophesy
"From the Stars a Prophet will come. He will lead you and the Arch Lector and Princes of the Church shall lay obedient in prostration in his presence. He will bring to you a ring and speak words of power which makes the Relic of Saint Contispex (in fact an ancient Pius Dea holocron style device requiring instructions to activate in the old Pius Dea tongue) activate and teach it's truths, he shall be able to defeat any being in battle and drive all before him, he shall be merciful and wrathful in equal measure and on his touch, the relic of the Redemption shall glow, and many other portents will be seen in all lands. Thus he shall come, and he shall rule over you, and his successors likewise for many generations."
The General Body of Holy Father Church is centered around a fixed organizational structure. The faithful are grouped into around a thousand per Diocese headed by a Bishop, these are broken down into five congregations each under a Confessor each of whom will have an Acolyte, a Deacon and a Curate who perform subsidiary roles. Celibacy is not expected of clergy, but immoderate public sexuality is seen as sinful. Womens opportunities in the church are limited as passages in the Holy Texts forbid them from preaching or teaching within a church building.
A thousand Diocese are grouped into an Arch-Diocese under a Cardinal Arch-Bishop. A Thousand Arch-Diocese are grouped under a Lector, there are always Five Lectors and selected from the Faithful there is the Arch-Lector who is the final word on any decision as his will is determined to be divinely influenced by the grace of our deity.
Although there are other groups which determine doctrine and the day to day administration of the faith, the Grand Council of the Church (all Confessors, Bishops, Arch-Bishops and even Junior Clergy can address the Council) which is called once a century to rule on doctrinal issues and sits for ten years. All Cardinal Arch-Bishops are represented in the Concistorial Court of Discipline, which sits constantly. The Lectors act as high officials at the court and also have their own Council named the Magisterium of the Deity, advising the Arch Lector and each running an arm of Father Church, while the Concistorial Court sees to it's body and the Arch Lector is it's decision making link to divinity.
The five Lector-headed arms of the Church are:
- The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is the disciplinary arm of the church (also known as the "Quisition"). It has around ten thousand members named Exquisitors, each Exquisitor holds the power to prosecute Church members or Clergy in Church courts for major infractions such as heresy. They are responsible for questioning incorrect doctrine, revealing it and correcting it, while imposing chastisement where necessary.
- The Congregation for the Evangelization of Humans is the missionary branch of the Church which is in charge of all prosletising efforts and assuring that new members become fully educated and doctrinally competent. The members are usually of ecclesiastical rank in any case, but if not and are simply lay people committing their lives to a life of spreading the faith, they are known as Missionaries.
- The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life manages those who have committed themselves to lives devoted to the religion in a greater way than the average of the Faithful. There are five named Orders of Consecrated Life and too numerous to list are the variety of societies of lay members live by stricter rules than the general body of the church in order to be closer to the deity.
- The Order of Ordained Scientists - This group lives communally in often isolated communities and work on various branches of scientific and technical study that help develop our understanding of the universe and so the deity's works.
- The Order of Anchorites of the Void - This group is a small order that commit themselves to a lifetime of solitary prayer and study. They must first work and raise the money to fund or build a simple space craft able to sustain a single person indefinitely. It is not permitted to have any communications links but must have sufficient food, water, atmosphere and medical facilities to last at least twice their projected lifespan. They are deposited at random in deep space by a hyperspace ring which the Order's Clergy provides, these will jump to random coordinates, leave the Anchorite pod and jump back to Eriadu, clearing their computer history as they make the transit back so these faithful never return and spend the rest of their days contemplating the works of the deity and reading the holy texts. Unusually, the Order of Anchorites of the Void permits females to follow this vocation.
-The Order of Saint Contispex - This group has several hundred chapter houses which usually have agricultural land attached. Each is run by it's own Abbot and the members of the church are named Cenobites, addressed as "Brother _____". These chapter houses provide a variety of medical, humanitarian relief and educational services to the communities around them, often taking in young orphans, many of whom become Cenobites. Cenobites divide their waking hours in equal measure between Labour (physical labour for the benefit of the Chapterhouse, often growing food or other farming duties), Study (reading the holy texts, copying manuscripts and contemplation of the holy truths) and Prayer (conducted in five times daily services held in these Chapterhouses.
- The Order of the The Divine Purse - The Order is responsible for managing church finances. Is an order of sterilized accountants who renounce all property and live a sacred vocation to manage the finances of the chuch. They are sterilized in order that they have no progeny and so no reason to wish to accrue wealth for future progeny. They are selected from applicants from Church schools from male applicants aged eighteen who have graduated in the top 0.01% of their class and who must pass a mathematics exam considered more difficult than IGBC Exams in order to even enter as a Novice into the order. The Order is the smallest as it comprises the elite of the elite and usually has around a thousand members who live in several chapterhouses on Eriadu and do not have contact with the outside corrupt world. The most senior members of the order may be seen in public attending meetings of senior clergy to present reports or figures. They are the top rank in the order, named "Logis Wardens", with normal members of the order simply addressed as "Brother Logistician"
- The Order of the Most Sacred Order of the Preservation of the Blood and Brain - Lead by the Cenobiarch of the Genes. This order is responsible for testing all members for genetic mutations from the human norm. They provide contraceptive and sterilization services for non-human or mutant faithful and provide statements of genetic purity to the Faithful (required to progress into the clergy). They are also responsible for branding texts as Edifying or Censoring them among the faithful.
- The Congregation for the Education of the Faith - This life combines the role of a monk and a teacher, these often may live in Chapter Houses which may serve as Boarding Schools for large numbers of the poor faithful who cannot afford to house their own children or afford childcare. They also serve in many normal Eriadu Schools and may live among the laity as educators in any field. They are however obligated to live by strict holy orders. The leaders of this arm are ranked as "Evangelists" wheras the junior members are simply known as "Teacher" with the most junior being "Tutor".
- The Congregation for the Faithful of Distant Parts - This branch provides priests, money for places of worship, support and welfare to newly formed churches off Eriadu itself. They provide clergy, guidance and support to distant congregations and legal and other assistance when these new churches (or indeed old churches separated from Eriadu by distance) have difficulties.
The Arch Lector, in addition to presiding over the Church (while leaving much day to day Governance, Faith and Temporal concerns, to the Concistorial Court) is directly responsible for several groups who over the centuries the incumbent Arch Lector has granted the right to be directly subordinate to him, and not the Magesterium or Concistorial Court (as the majority of the faithful are).
- The Order of the Redemption (not publicly acknowledged) - A cult comprising around 500,000 members who are fully aware the Church is a politically expedient face of the Pius Dea, their numbers and membership is secret, as are meetings. However, all Arch-Bishops and Lectors have been members for over a thousand years. The inner circle hold Pius Dea Church rank in addition to their own religious titles, so a simple Faithful Brother might have no rank in the Church of the Deity, but might be Redemptionist Deacon or Bishop within the Cult. The ranks are (from lowest to highest) Redemptionist, Censor Bearer, Crusader (ranks of the junior cultists, outside the inner circle), Exorcist, Acolyte, Deacon, Patriarch and Bishop. The Arch-Lector is the Grand High Redemptionist (unless he appoints another to this role).
- The Orders Militant:
- The Holy Wardens of the Deity - The Security force of the Church, heavily armoured their Sentinels can be seen on the walls and gates of all major church buildings. They number around 100,000 in number (on Eriadu, some others throughout the Sector) they are equipped with old and crude but effective armour and weapons. They are responsible with transfering the weapons from the Church armories to the walls if required (all Church buildings are built with weapons mountings and an army in case they need to defend themselves).
- The Banishers of the Flesh - A sect of warrior cyborgs numbering in the low hundreds. Given official status under an eccentric Arch-Lector several centuries ago they have never been a large order and seek to banish weakness by upgrading their body with cybernetic implants and replacements. Rarely seen outside their Monestary on Seswenna except occasionally in the grounds of their only other Chapterhouse outside Eriadu City.
- The College of the Void Leviathans - This is a religious order devoted to the study of the operation, design and piloting of capital and even larger classes of space-craft. This has all been purely theoretical and is done in simulators. However, there has always been a prophecy that there would be a time when the Deity would call her children to the Stars and that they must be able to fight for their celestial destiny. Each world in the Seswenna Sector has a Chapter house and massive battles between conceptual craft and the current latest designs are run day and night to seek to create perfect officers for any ships needed in future. Many in the Church believe the prophecy of Arch Lector Finis III was a simple allegory and so view the amount spent on the College as distasteful. Members of the college are ordained priests but wear military uniforms and have Military as well as church style titles.
- The Praecipua Exsecutionem - The special enforcers of the Arch-Lector, trained in many different martial arts, they are generally feared for their black robes, silent steps and swift blades. Often a heretic priest who cannot be tried for political reasons ends up dead. Essentially a group of trained assassins, sent out to live as bounty hunters for two decades before returning to the order they are few in number (around twenty members at any time active) and are officially titled "Executioner of the Doctrine of the Faith" or "Doctrinal Executioner" which refers to their official task of executing doctrine in the legal sense, not their true role as ecclesiastical executioners.
- The Exploratory Theologians of Seswenna - A group headed by Elon Tarkin dedicated to the exploration of the ancient texts and seeking the deeper meanings in them. They also keep a secret library of Pius Dea documents, and study those as divine texts equally.
- The College of the Gifted with Divine Grace - A branch for the training of Force Sensitives (currently being established to set up schools for these children to be educated away from the Jedi). The Current Arch-Lector Sejanus declared a moratorium on allowing the Jedi to take away Church members children from their homes if force sensitive and so pledged their own education system. Currently construction of a building is under way on Mirnic. Its construction is taking a great deal of time as it is understood the Jedi Order or radicals in it may attempt to steal such children away and so there must be sufficient security to thwart this. The College is currently seeking Force-able tutors (even Jedi if they will abide by the schools religious code of life) to help tutor these young force sensitives. "
- Elon Tarkin, in a presentation explaining the Church, (Classified level data, do not assume all of this is public domain)
Name: Sejanus Sabastien
Age: 68
Position: Arch Lector of the Church of the Good Deity
Background: Known for his work with worthy causes after being converted to the Church and quitting the Judicial Forces forty years ago, Sejanus is a generally affable figure seen as a father by many of his flock, known to be Anti-Jedi for their child-stealing policies (and indeed banning his members from letting their children be taken). Generally regarded as stable and a good influence on Eriadu as he encourages the masses of his religion to follow the orders of their political and economic superiors with the hope of a better next life in reward.
Church of the Good Deity Clergy and Minor Orders (examples of dress)  (Above: Confessor in robes carrying rod of office).  (Temple Honour Guard - Senior Members of the "Holy Wardens of the Deity" Sect/Organization within the Church in ceremonial armour of heavy ultrachrome plate requiring constant daily fitness regime)  (Above: Novice Chapel Guard, Goge Chapel, Quintad Colony, Bellorian System. Junior member of the "Holy Wardens of the Deity" Sect/Organization within the Church. They wear heavy armour of durasteel and thermaplas over a thin armourweave undersuit. Note rudimentary HUD incorporated into helmet and older (but still powerful) Heavy Blaster Rifle) 
(Above: A senior non-ordained member (equivalent to a Sergeant in normal security forces) in "The Order for the Preservation of Divine Peace" a branch of "The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is the disciplinary arm of the church (also known as the "Quisition"). Essentially a thuggish enforcer of priestly laws. But who are welcome in areas where anti-church riots occur as they're well known for breaking the skulls of non-believers with relish. Heavily armoured they carry stun mauls which can be switched to worn similarly to the emitter on an electrostaff. Face is concealed by stylized helmet which is pressurized. Usually will carry a sidearm in addition to several stun grenades about his person.)  (Above: Doctrinal executioner, much better known for their executions than official work on doctrine. The assassins of the Arch Lector.)
(Above: A stylized depiction of a Cardinal Arch-Bishop with his staff, note the elaborate regalia and large mitre.)  (Above: Around the average appearance for a low level clergyman in the church. Note wild beard and deranged stance.)  (Above: A female anchorite (anchoress) preaching before being set adrift in space. All anchorites spend a month evangelizing before they set forth. This lady has elected to have her eyes removed to remove any temptation they might draw her to.)  (Above: A Confessor and two Deacons preaching a fiery sermon in one of the Chapels of the Eriadu City Cathedral.)
The Most Holy and Thrice Blessed Lord Sejanus
_____________________
Arch-Lector of the Church of the Good Deity
Vicar of the Feminine Divine,
Patriarch of all Men, Supreme Head of the Universal Church.
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