Church of the Moonmother
Structure
The clergy held a wide assortment of titles. Novices were always known as the Called, while a full priest was known as Priestess or Priest, typically prefaced by Touched, Enstarred, Moonbathed, Silverbrow, Lunar, Initiate, and High Initiate, in order of increasing rank. Higher-ranked clergy were instead known as "Priestess/Priest of the…" followed by a term traditional to the shrine or temple with which the priest was affiliated.
Culture
The highest principle of Mehena's ethos was acceptance and tolerance. She bade the faithful to encourage and exemplify acceptance, equality and equal access, tolerance, and understanding; to treat all other beings as equals; and to make all welcome in the faith. Fellow Mehenites were treated as dear friends and were to be aided freely. They were to be as helpful and friendly to lonely and good people as was feasible. Taught to be compassionate, they were usually patient and accepting of everybody, with an understanding ear and a healing hand. The church had an ideology of female empowerment. Women were honored for their roles as teachers and as role models in society and in the family.
Public Agenda
There were broadly two kinds of Mehenite clergy: those who remained at the temples (often but not necessarily due to age or infirmity), and those who wandered Aralla. Their duties were similar but distinct.
Temple priests provided healing to the community and tended to the residents of asylums and sanitariums, which often adjoined their temples. As the goddess bade them, they were generous with their healing magic and charged very little for it.
Itinerant priests spread the faith by seeking out and keeping in touch with both existing and potential worshipers, in the belief that Mehena could be worshiped anywhere. Such priests also provided healing, usually asking for nothing more than a meal and a warm place to rest. They practiced humility and self-reliance. These habits kept the clergy well-traveled, resilient, and in touch with the natural world in a practical manner.
Worship
Clerics of Mehena pray for their spells at night, always when the Cradle was visible. A female cleric of Mehena believes she is closest to her deity during times when a Full Moon would have been visible, and during that period, she conducts morning ceremonies to open herself to special visions, insights, and intuitions. Milk, as a symbol of motherhood and the sustaining power of the feminine, plays an important role in most Mehenite ceremonies.
Priesthood
As Mehena's faith preached equality and love, her priesthood was diverse and far spread. Most of the members of this church were women, and the highest ranking priestesses were often human women. There were also a scattered few lycanthropes, both natural and afflicted, but all of good heart.
May Mehena guide your steps in the night, and bring them to the new dawn.
