The Void Church
The Void Church originated before the region known as The Bubble was defined and it persisted after the Bubble had burst. Although it was never politically powerful it crossed the boundaries of The Solar Group and The Republic and it acted as a weak unifying glue for the wider culture of humanity, particularly after the fragmentation of the Bubble and then much later as it spread into the open galaxy.
History
With the development of humanity's Flicker Drive in 2268 at the start of the so called Golden Age Of Adventure, came a sudden consciousness of the greater context of galactic history and geography within which Earthly civilization was embedded whether it had known it or not and whether it liked it or not.
At a political level, this resulted in the creation of The Bureau of Xeno Relations in 2270 and a dynastic change in The Resource Management World Government in the following year.
As the early human explorers encountered The Society Of Contemporary Races and the wide variety of alien species and worlds set amidst the unimaginable vastness of the empty spaces between them, it inspired a new sense of awe and reverence which crystallised with the foundation of the Void Church in 2280.
The annals of the Church record that Anders Frost, a pilot in the government exploration service met with Li Jing Lin, a xenobiologist in 2276 during the first survey of the system that would later be known as Blue Home and would be one of the earliest systems to receive human colonists in 2318. Together they formulated the core doctrines of the faith and were married in 2277. Petitioning the survey mission to allow a combined refuge and chapel to be annexed to the secondary orbiting survey platform, they were granted rights in 2280, opening the first Void chapel.
The new religion gained many adherents amongst starship travellers, and particularly the soft scientists studying the new worlds; the biologists, sociologists, xenologists and anthropologists. By the middle of the 24th century the Agarite Theological Centre on Green Home had become the primary source of doctrinal orthodoxy within the church and the main centre from which the faith was disseminated.
Tenets of Faith
The Void church borrows heavily from existing Earth based predecessors. In nomenclature, organisational style and for some key articles of faith it adopts the monotheistic ideas of the Abrahamic religions, but in other ways it is perhaps philosophically closer to Buddism. The ideas of the the Society of Contemporary Races have also influenced it.
Mystical and spiritual practices are emphasised over social concerns but the Church considers it has a mission to support the progress of life and its flourishing in a largely indifferent universe and it strives to allow all life to achieve its potential.
Worship
Most routine worship is conducted in regular Void Chapels and largely in silence but with some limited ritualistic chanting led by the priests.
Members of the Order of the Holy Void are obligated to perform special isolated mediations every ten years in Meditation Pods (which are also often called Void Chapels). These special Void Chapels are small space stations drifting in the gaps between the stars. Here the priest must live in isolation and contemplate the Void like a technological hermit, until they are moved to rejoin society and send a message drone out to summon up a ship to take them back.
Priesthood
The Church divides its priesthood into a number of Orders into which supplicants are ordained to follow particular pathways within the organisation. The most important of these are the Order of Focal Reverence, the Order of Revealed Truth and the Order of the Holy Void.
Most priests belong to the Order of Focal Reverence which concerns itself with ministering to the faithful by conducting divine meditations. The Order of Revealed Truth is an outreach to alien species with embassies and study centres on many planets. The Order of the Holy Void is a proselytising and itenerant society concerned with doctrinal purity and having the highest level of authority with the Church hierarchy.
Founding Date
2280
Type
Religious, Organised Religion
Capital
Subsidiary Organizations
Controlled Territories
Notable Members
Comments