I am a Unifier
From LanceaSanctum
Written by Bishop J.W.Ghoren of Delaware.
Contents |
Introduction
Brethren,
After reading Brother Tolerance's recent, eloquent defense of the Hard Line to which he holds, I have found myself reflecting upon my own approach to such matters of faith and inter-kindred relations. In short, I try to be a Unifier, for I believe that we are stronger and more effective as a Church of the Damned than as either a haphazard confederation of imperfect, solitary Predators or a rigidly doctrinal, homogenized Party of faith. No Damned is an island, and neither is any Diocese; we share a foundation, though each of our towers of Purpose may take a different shape.
It is natural that in any collection of wills as strong as those in this Church, that there should be strife and disagreement from time to time. My calling is not to remove that conflict, for it is often necessary. I do not seek to reconcile irreconcilable differences; I try to reconcile those Damned in the conflict, for we are all Brethren in the Testament, though we may disagree. It is through our shared faith in the teachings of the Dark Prophet that we are bound within this Sanctum, and as a Unifier I try to stand for and bolster those things we share.
There are two primary ways in which I, and some others I know of a similar bent, go about doing this. The first, which I have already touched upon, involves fostering unity through mediation and extolling the shared traditions and values we all hold dear. The second involves the building of institutions through which we can learn about and from each other, thus tempering the steel of our own convictions, while recognizing the value of varied perspective and shared experience. I shall address both of these methods of unification further. Following that, I shall briefly discuss the fallacy of "Knowing" a belief and will attempt to demonstrate how both over-conservatism and over-liberalism can lead to the same heretical end, before concluding with a brief Prayer for Unity.
Fostering Unity
As noted above, conflict is both unavoidable and - to a degree - healthy within our Covenant. However, too often Damned can get so invested in the individual arguments in which they participate, that we forget it is a Brother in faith to whom we are speaking. It is the Beast and our own Pride that make us so prone to hackle at insult and barb; so we must attempt to master these base impulses, for the good of our own souls and of any society to which we would belong. That same Pride is the seed of self-righteousness, which can blind us to the ways in which we are the same when we are debating our differences.
Some have suggested that the Unity of our church shall ever be a problem, so long as we are divided by differences in denomination; some of these further chide their Brethren who have "fallen" from the "True Path." And perhaps it would be easier, if we all believed the same thing, but then how would we adapt to changes in the mortal world? How would we ever learn anything new from each other? And where, within such a homogeny, is there any space for one's personal belief? There is, Brethren, a True Path for which I need no dummy quotes... and that is the Dark Path we all walk, through our faith in the teachings of Longinus, the Dark Prophet. Yet the Dark Path is different for every Damned, often subtly but always so. And we can learn and grow stronger by fostering the diverse perspectives of our Brethren.
Others go too far in the opposite direction, seeming to believe any tradition can be compromised, and that any belief that mentions Longinus is acceptible. This is no more valid than a demand that Predators with free will all believe exactly the same. Yet it is a natural inclination at times, as the modern world and the need to Convert ever drives us to adapt. When these traditionalist and reformist strains in our church collide, the modern symptom is over a thousand public correspondences among the church within a month. Small things can also lead to conflict that can grow out of control, such as disagreements about canonical interpretation or individual/local issues.
In all of these cases, when it appears Damned are forgetting the Forest of their Brethren for the Tree seemingly in their way at the time, Unifiers plant themselves in between to gently remind both parties that we are all planted in the same Scriptural ground. Whether attempting to mediate simple conflicts or standing against extremism, Unifiers do their best to see that the center holds. Sometimes that means poking at the premises of an argument to make sure they're still agreed upon; others, it's taking the role of devil's advocate when one side's vocal fury threatens to drown out another entirely. But it always begins with or comes back to agreement; for ultimately, there's a lot more of that going around within the Church than disunity or disagreement.
I have heretofore mentioned the values and beliefs I feel we all share numerous times, without expounding upon what precisely they are. I shall define them now:
- One All-Powerful God Exists, the Creator.
- The World Exists as a Prison for Man.
- The Damned Exist as the keepers of that Prison, cursed to show the kine the true grotesquery of the fallen.
- Longinus, the Centurion son of Livia, Dark Prophet and First Sanctified, was Damned for a life of sin and acts of evil upon Golgotha against an Agent of God.
- Through visitations, trials and many long, benighted centuries, Longinus came to show the Damned the Path which God has set for us, as recorded in the Testament of Longinus
- The Lancea Sanctum was established by Longinus's childe and heir as the home of those beliefs and the institution which would develop and spread them through the world.
- We are all members of the Lancea Sanctum by choice of society over loneliness, and all called by God to the same Purpose, though granted still the free will to find our own ways to Him, and thus call each other "Brother" and "Sister."
Building Institutions
Kindred need places to gather, ideologically, physically, now digitally and forever in purpose. Institutions provide such places. The eldest and most hallowed of such institutions is Elysium, a tradition stretching back to ancient times. Its principles are simple: though two Kindred may disagree, or even loathe each other, there is a societal boon gained by their civility that far outweights the importance of their individual grievances. That boon is, simply, society itself.
As I stated in my opening, I believe we are stronger in comminication and cooperation with each other than we can ever be standing alone. As with Elysia, coteries, societies and other institutions provide places for Damned to gather for a higher purpose than their selfish needs. Such orders and groups allow us to hone our Divine Purpose through testing, training and tribulation with our Brethren in the Faith. Whether it be archive and artifact hunters gathering to trade tips and secrets, or a council of neighboring Bishops coming together to discuss a mutual concern or even a pair of bitter rivals rhetorically battling on our global forum, all of these places enable us to stand stronger through the broader cooperation of our church.
Beyond the simple but crucial need for gathering, institutions naturally become repositories of knowledge and resources for those to whom they are geared. Any order of Inquisitors will, over time, amass a volume of tools that could vastly aid the work any individual Inquisitor. One of the walking legends of our faith, H.E. de Bethune, understood well the power of institutions of shared learning and resource when he opened to the world Halen's Novitiate and Hub of Knowledge. It is a beacon of what can be gained by coming together to learn from each other. Beyond a store of ancient knowledge, it is a school of modern technique in Sanctified faith and practice. Such institutions preserve the past and make it accessible to younger Damned, ensuring the future of our Church.
The Fallacy of "Knowing"
The faith of any Man or Damned is his own matter, while he keeps it to himself. Men and Damned come together to share their faith and build institutions - Canon, Doctrine, churches and Churches - which codify those beliefs and aspects of faith which they share... and this is the covenant. The Covenant of our Faith is the Testament of Longinus, taken together with much - but no longer all - of the Sanguineous Catechism. Already at the time of Monachus's post-canonical nights in the Church, there were divergent perspectives and interpretations of the Testament and the best way for the Church to operate. He sanctioned these with the 9th Canon, by giving supreme Spiritual authority to Bishops; he further supported it by not describing the Catechism as Divinely Inspired in the 5th Canon.
I believe a rarely postulated aspect of the wisdom with which the Monachus made these choices is the importance of the personal relationship between a Bishop or any pastor and the faithful whom he serves. Faith is personal, and no rigid doctrine of top-down worldview and belief could ever accomodate a Damned struggling with his condition so well as a cleric who can work personally with that Kindred to help him find his own way onto the Dark Path set before us. I admire my Brethren whose convictions about the way of the world define them so, yet I recognize that I should not let myself be defined by anything more than my Purpose. And that Purpose is defined in the Testament alone.
The Truth of Belief vs. the Truth of Fact
First, definitions. A Truth of Belief is one informed by faith, by unknowable certainty in the way of the world and one's place within it. A Truth of Fact is one that is objectively apparent, by either simple observation or - in the case of premises and foundations - concensus. It can be argued unto all time whether one is more important than the other, and no answer will ever be achieved for this reason: their importance is mutable and interrelated. One is personal and spiritual, the other social and manifest; which set of Truths we must take guidance from in a given situation is governed to an extent by these aspects of our Requiems.
Truths of Belief include, I believe for mostly all Sanctified, those shared Truths I mentioned above. For each Damned, however, they also comprise more by necessity, for the Testament only goes so far in explaining the way of Creation. While arguably its knowledge is all we need for our own existences, any active mind given centuries of ponderance will ask further questions and seek out other answers. Some of these answers may come from observation, others from mortal scripture or philosphy, and still others from experience with our kindred and revelations through prayer and contemplation. As an example, Brother Tolerance believes that Jesus Christ - through emulation and worship of him - provides the only path for mortals to gain Salvation. His knowledge is informed by his belief, and his action informed by what he takes as knowledge; we should expect no less of him, and should take heart from his conviction.
Truths of Fact become important whenever Damned seek to come together for any reason. Premises must be agreed upon, whether they be the conditions of a safe meeting or the definitions and doctrines to be used within an argument. As a society, the Church of the Damned requires that its members recognize those things which keep us together; in short, those things which make it worth being other than a Solitary Predator, and worth sacrificing total autonomy. These include the strength we find in numbers, and the betterment of our Holy Mission thereby achieved. They include also the wisdom to be gained by sharing our experiences with Brethren, and the companionship to be found among those who knowingly walk a similar Path. Truths of Fact also include the recognition that among free-will endowed monsters, neither lockstep sublimination nor abandoned overindividualization are either desirable or even remotely good for our Shared Purposes of community, evangelism and mutual learning.
Since the dusk of Kindred Society there has been strife between those needs we hold individually and those of the groups that we form to help meet those individual needs. The Lancea Sanctum is the Sachristy of the Spear of Destiny; as was revealed through Vision to us at the Gran Ballo almost one year ago, the Spear is all of us. Though some may appear as swords, others axes and still others pens, we are all the Spear. Our convictions keep us sharp... but our society keeps us strong. We should certainly treat as knowledge that which we hold to be true about our Purpose and place in Creation, that we may guide our actions accordingly, but must remember in treating with our Brethren that these truths are beliefs, and not facts.
- Every faithful Sanctified Brother and Sister is a point of fear for the kine, and a point of example to those Damned who do not yet know their purpose.
- Every Priest is a point against the throat of ignorance among the Damned of his parish.
- Every Inquisitor is a point against the heretics and apostates who would rot us from within.
- Every Crusader is a point against the enemies who would make war upon our Faith.
- Every Bishop and every Diocese is a point against the disorder and disarray to which our Beasts incline us.
The Dangers of Extremism
When a Damned allows his personal beliefs to cloud his recognition of others' right to the same, the result is extremism. Religion gone wild, extremism places personal or group conviction above the societal good and undermines the foundations we share by seeking either to shatter them for modernity or to force every floor above into the same design in the name of tradition and their truth (of Belief). Extremists of all stripes seek to subjugate the wills of others to the Path they set out as right for all. In the case of Fundamentalists, this can lead to Doctrinal Totalitarianism, a Heresy by the standard of the 9th Canon. In the case of Liberals, this can lead to Gnosticism, also Heretical, by the standards of our imperfection as laid out in the Code.
Ultimately, however, the sin is the same: ignorant Pride. Liberals too easily dispense with that which can be learned from tradition and traditional leaders; Fundamentalists too easily disregard the knowledge to be gained from those with whom they disagree on the finer points of faith. Both fall into the trap of presuming to know as fact the "True Way" God has set for us, demanding that their brethren follow and castigating them or worse when they do not; such notions of the "True Way" are Truths of Belief, and must be spread neither by demand nor force, but by dialogue and example. As we are a covenant of faith, we should focus upon our shared beliefs in our Purpose and the Dark Prophet who showed it to us. Leave "knowledge" to that which is knowable; as it has been since Man first knew of God, presuming to know God's will - or to know better than it - is the rankest hubris.
Conclusory Remarks
I am a Unifier.
By Tradition we are Brothers and Sisters. Yet such is a distinction of Blood. Blood is what we take from the kine, but it is not wholly what we are. We are our Purpose. We are the Spear. Ours is a community of Faith in the Testament of Longinus and of devotion to our shared Purpose for the betterment of Men and Damned. I use the terms Brother and Sister, yet I think of my fellow Sanctified rather as comerades, come together in shared holy purpose rather than sinful blood. I prize diversity and perspective among my comerades, for I believe that:
- Diversity fosters Knowledge.
- Knowledge provides Power.
- Power to understand our fellow Kindred better that we may help them find their Dark Path.
- Power to know the mortals and how best to drive them back to His Light.
I believe that fundamentalism, change, old, new and improved all have their place and their lessons to teach us, and that we must be receptive to those lessons if we are to successfully adapt through the centuries of our Mission. The adaptability created by the 9th Canon has sustained this Church for nigh 1500 years, and the wisdom of its writer endures to this day: that while no Damned is an island, neither are we all mountains, or forests or plains. We are a patchwork and when extremism threatens to rip our threads apart, as a Unifier I see my role in the process of retightening those common strands. For we - all of us - truly are the Spear of Destiny.
We are the Grandeur. WE are the Sanctified.
Holy Father above, God of all Damned
We Pray this night for the Unity of our Church.
Show us the ways in which we are the same,
And help us to understand the proportion of our differences.
Bless all Damned with confidence in their Holy Purpose,
Tempered with respect for those who share it.
As Damned come together in worship and in community,
Help us to appreciate the experiences and perspective of our Brethren.
May you look upon your Church of the Damned, O Lord,
And see us as a single Spear of Destiny,
Many different points ever thrusting toward the same end.
We Pray that our Purpose may keep us together,
And that our Congregation may keep us strong.
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