The Church of the Sacred Flame

The idea behind it is this: the Remans worshiped a war god, and the Hellesians worshiped a water god, and they lived in what the Yeshuans viewed as fear. There is also of course the saying "light in the darkness," or "light at the end of a tunnel." So, the Yeshuans pulled from the traditions of the Jews and of the goddess Hestia to include candles in their rituals. When the Vestal Virgins became magissas and overthrew the government, they further pushed the idea that light is good and darkness and death by sea is bad. Ever since, eternal flames in various parts of the congregation are viewed as sacred and an honor to protect. Because the initial Yeshuan magissas were from Rema and Cicaelia, they brought their tradition of the resurrection of Persephone every spring as duel goddess of the underworld and spring and the idea that Hephaestus and Demeter were needed to make plants grow - volcanoes and agriculture, blacksmithing and gardening, chaos and order, men and women (not necessarily in that order). So, this idea of family and gendered partnership became central to Yeshuan tradition. It gradually, however, also included the idea that only regulated orders of men or women should be practicing magic, leading to a lot of debate over "is this magic or is this science and should you be allowed to do this thing." It stemmed from just these gods plus Jewish tradition for the longest time, before the religion came into contact with the Norse, whose myth of Ragnorak foretold a Yeshua-like second coming in Baldur with his mother Frig/Frejya, and the Slavs, who had a parallel god in Jarillo and his sister Morana.

Structure

The Bishops, Archbishops, and Patriarchs and Matriarchs work together to debate, discuss, and decide on Church doctrine and teachings. Since different areas have different cultural influences (the Celtoi have Ruadan and his mother Brig, the worshipers of Hephaestus had him married to Demeter/an earth goddess, Baldur's mum was Frig/Freya, and so on), there's an archbishop for the area where the initial religion, Yeshuanism (after the approximate Hebrew name for Jesus or Joshua), was brought to the area. Men and women chosen to be church leaders are usually widows and widowers, or at least have grown children, while married couples can become deacons and deaconesses. A man and woman must always be working in tandem in a given area.

Culture

There are two major eras to pay attention to: the pre-Continental-Shift period, and the period after that. This is because during the Shift, documents were lost, centers of power shifted - to there being no physical center of power, actually - and the power structure changed from one with only twelve men at the top to one with twenty-four men and women on top with a growing allowance for more. There was also more allowance for cultural influences - the Hestian order adapted practices from the order of Brigid (the goddess) to strengthen the role of the "lady of the land" in the community. That means land-owning men and women had power - which at first, really wasn't that many people.

"You shall love the LORD with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and you shall love others as you love yourself."

Founding Date

2936

Type

Religious, Organised Religion

Alternative Names

Keepers of or Church of the Everlasting Light, Church of Hephaestus, Yeshuanism, Church of Baldur, Church of Ruadan, Church of Jarillo

Demonym

Yeshuans

Subsidiary Organizations

• Church of Jarillo