Byzantine Creed

From LanceaSanctum

The Byzantine Creed:

Whatsoever Kindred will be Sanctified, before all things it is necessary that he hold the true faith; Whatsoever Kindred does not keep the true faith, without doubt he shall suffer everlastingly.

The true faith is this: There is one God of three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and Longinus is His Damned creature.

The Father is almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth.

The Son is one Lord, Jesus Christ, only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, who became man and for our sins suffered under Pontius Pilate and was crucified. While Christ hung upon the Cross, Longinus did pierce His side, revealing His divinity through fulfillment of the prophecies. For this blasphemy Longinus was Damned according to God's Holy Plan.

There is one Holy Spirit, light and life, who proceeds from the Father, who spoke through the prophets, and who dwells within the pure.

Through our own sins we are Damned to Hell. The Damned are Sanctified as an agent of God's will, chosen to receive the Embrace so that they may drive the faithful towards a more perfect union with God. There is no hope of redemption and no promise of salvation, but through Damnation the Sanctified may yet find purpose in God's Holy Plan.

(Written by Genevieve P, US2003112559)

1 Background
2 Orders
3 Orthodox Rites of the Damned
4 Links
5 Further reading

[edit] Background

As the Monachal Creed became prominent in the West, the Byzantine Creed grew in importance in the East. After the fall of the Black Monastery, Monachus and his followers went out into the known world carrying their dogma to the Kindred of antiquity. For those inclined to hear Longinus' word, the teachings carried new hope and purpose. Perhaps inevitably, many Kindred of the ancient cities where Christ and the Apostles had themselves walked and ministered had some problems with dogmatic and practical applications of the Monachal Creed.

As the Western and Eastern Roman Empire grew from two halves of one whole to two separate entities, the Sanctified of each society became increasingly removed from one another. The Byzantine Creed emerged during this period, some say as an earlier, pre-Monachal creed, some say as a Creed put forth to reflect the practical separation of the Eastern Orthodox churches from the Roman Catholic.

The Byzantine Creed is prevalent in Russia, most of Eastern Europe, and among Sanctified of Christian extraction in the Balkans and the Caucasus, and has had a small but constant minority presence in Greece. Because of the long separation of the East from the West, due to the long reign of the Byzantine Empire, wars, political grievances, and the Iron Curtain, followers of the Creed in the Americas, Western Europe and Australia are rare, but are starting to become more numerous since the fall of communist regimes.

Followers of the Byzantine Creed find many things in common with both the Monachal and Westminster Creeds, but find neither to be true followers of the traditions set in place by Longinus. They believe strongly in regular confession to any member of the Sanctified that has received a blessing to take confession. They also have no particular prohibition on sexual interactions or marital relationships between Kindred.

The Byzantine Creed emphasizes personal, mystical spirituality and theology as opposed to the 'scientific,' Scholastic theology of the Monachal Creed. The Creed is fervently Trinitarian and believes that Kindred inability or prohibition from feeding or embracing the 'pure' is due to those individuals having achieved theosis (http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/Theosis), a more complete connection to God through an indwelling of the Holy Spirit.