Ecclesiastical Amendant Church of Ebrary
| Ecclesiastical Amendant Church of Ebrary | |
|---|---|
| Ecclesia Amendante Clerical de Ebraria | |
| Classification | Amendant |
| Polity | Episcopal |
| Governor-Primate | Bishop of Ceres |
| Language | Ebrarese |
| Headquarters | Cathedral de Ceres, Ceres, Ebrary |
| Absorbed | Free Amendant Church of Ebrary (1940) |
| Separations |
|
The Ecclesiastical Amendant Church of Ebrary (Ebrarese: Ecclesia Amendante Clerical de Ebraria), known formerly (and still informally) as simply the Church of Ebrary (Ebrarese: Ecclesia de Ebraria), is an Amendant Christian church which was the established church of Ebrary until 1934. Members of the church are generally denoted as Ebraricists (Ebrarese: Ebraricistas), so the church is also sometimes referred to as the Ebraricist Church (Ebrarese: Ecclesia Ebraricista). As Ebrary's longest-lasting functioning institution, it has played an important role in the history and development of the Ebrarian nation. The bishop of Ceres is the most senior cleric, supreme governor, and chief pastor of the church. It traces its origins to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Aroman-speaking colonies of Ebrary in the 5th-century. The church is headquartered in the historic Cathedral of Ceres in the Ebrarian capital of Ceres.
Due to its history, the Ebraricist Church views itself as respecting unbroken apostolic succession from the apostles. In 1939, the Ebraro-Orthodox faction of the Church of Ebrary split and formed the Orthodox Aroman Church in Ebrary.
History
Pre-Reformation
Before the Amendant Reformation, the Ebrarian church was headed solely by the Bishop of Ceres while in communion with other Christian churches. The church broke communion with the Aroman Church over the iconoclast crisis, and iconoclasm never took hold in Ebrary to any notable degree until the Amendant Reformation. In 1502, King Charles 'the Greedy' declared himself head of the church in Ebrary in order to expropriate church lands and wealth for the use of the Ebrarian state. This caused a break in communion with other autocephalous Christian churches. Discontentment with the state of the church ultimately led the priest August Roel to publish his "Proposal for Amending the Church" in Miron in 1513, which led to the Amendant Reformation.
Amendant Reformation
The Amendant Reformation itself is said to have lasted from 1513 to 1567. The church, stripped of much of its wealth and power and operating under a series of incompetent monarchs, styled itself "Orthodox and Aroman under Ebrarian rule". Various acts of vandalism occurred performed by iconoclasts in many Ebrarian cathedrals and churches of the era. Church attendance dramatically lowered as a large number of Ebrarians were converted to various Amendant denominations. However, in 1567 the Vorstish King Gustav II took the throne and instituted a number of reforms to the church, installing Amendant-leaning bishops, and bringing the church more theologically aligned with the Amendant view. This effectively ended any pretense of the Church of Ebrary being an Orthodox or Aroman church, although a large faction sympathetic to the old ways continued to exist in the church until the 20th century.
Era as a national church
As a national church, the Church of Ebrary held a wide variety of theological viewpoints. Various factions such as strict-Amendant factions, Sanctity-Ebraricist factions, and Ebraro-Orthodox cliques (both iconoclast and pro-icon) formed in the church. In 1895, the Free Amendant Church of Ebrary broke away from the Church of Ebrary due to changes in liturgy which were felt by those leaving to not adhere to Amendant beliefs.
Disestablishment, reorganization, and merger
The Church of Ebrary was disestablished in 1935 after the Ebrarian Revolution established a liberal democracy. In 1939, the iconoclastic Ebraro-Orthodox faction of the Church of Ebrary split and formed the Orthodox Aroman Church in Ebrary in order to join the Aroman Church. In early 1940, the iconodulist Ebraro-Orthodox split to form the Ebrarian Orthodox Catholic Church. In late 1940, the Free Amendant Church of Ebrary merged back with the Church of Ebrary to form the Ecclesiastical Amendant Church of Ebrary.
Since the Ebrarian Revolution
The Ecclesiastical Amendant Church of Ebrary was effectively neutral during the Ebrarian Revolution, but has supported the government of Sovereign Protector Daniel Lucas since he took power. The Constitution of Ebrary guaranteed the church is able to appoint members in both the Senate and the High Ecumenical Council.
Theology
Iconography
The Church of Ebrary allows both aniconism and iconodulism to coexist in its organization, while the church stands against explicit iconoclasm (destruction of icons). The bishop of a diocese is the sole authority to decide whether the usage of icons will be permitted in his diocese. A priest or bishop must not forbid communion to any baptized person in the church due to their position on icons, and this extends to those baptized in other churches the church is in communion with. The bishop and his diocese must must decide the locations and churches where icons are permitted. These regulations were formulated after the disestablishment of the church to unite the anti-icon and pro-icon factions of the Ebraricist community, and both factions have continued to exist with little incident since then. Currently, the Bishop of Ceres permits iconography in the Cathedral de Ceres, the headquarters of the Ebraricist Church. Iconodulism is most common in western Ebrary while aniconism predominates in eastern Ebrary.