Christianity in Themiclesia
Christianity in Themiclesia is the most popular organized religion, with over 3 million registered parishioners across several ecclesiastical bodies, the largest of which are the Apostolic Church of Themiclesia, the Sylvan Catholic Church, and the Lutheran Church of Themiclesia.
History
Terminology
- 泰示 (qlād-gris), lit. "great god"
- 帝示 (tīg-gris), lit. "legitimate god" = monogenēs,
- 神 (smlin), lit. "spirit"
Themiclesian monarchs tolerated the spreading of religion in cities, but villages beyond major cities were often controlled by single or groups of families, which were weary of religious organization of all kinds. Under this form of local leadership, large tracts of land were passed on within the family and difficult to obtain for a church. Additionally, the spiritual lives of rural Themiclesians were centred on ancestors of their families, which served the function of re-affirming blood ties. Thus, rural worshippers did not have access to a local church but made periodic pilgrimages to the cities, where the church's fiscal resources were therefore concentrated. Parish churches in the Casaterran sense did not appear in Themiclesia until 1700 or so, and then it was difficult to support owing to diffuse distribution of converts; rather, itinerant priests performed rites where required by church members.
Church architecture
The history of churches as structures in Themiclesia begins with the cathedral or monastic church rather than parish church due to its peculiar history. In general, it was far easier for the early ACT to find lay converts in major cities than in the countryside, and where religious education was required for the maintenance of a more exclusive religious order, it was also administered in cities. Thus, cities became the basis for the ACT as far in history as the 14th century, and thus the earliest churches were built for the accommodation of episcopal administration, religious orders, and an urban congregation.
The ACT cathedral in Kien-k'ang was rebuilt in 1465 with viceregal patronage as a large hall twelve bays long and four deep (one spanned). It did not have a cruciform shape until it was rebuilt after the fire of 1541. As opposed to Buddhist temples which tend to use their side parallel to the ridge as the front, churches were built with the orientation of royal palaces, i.e. with the direction of veneration towards the west. This is contrary to the usual eastern orientation in other countries. While other architectural forms were introduced to Themiclesia, there occurred a period of intermixture of forms owing to rapidly shifting affiliations during the 16th and 17th centuries, with the result that most Themiclesian churches are architecturally similar until the modern period.
After the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart burned down in 1541, it was rebuilt in 1560 to be twelve bays long and six deep (one spanned). Prior to the construction, worship was done in the ruins of the previous building as donations were collected for the church's re-erection. The new church had an interior area of 3,528 m², accommodating what contemporaries described as services for "five or six thousand people". As the Empress Dowager Par (Shinasthana: 帝后皮; 1531 – 1575) underwrote half the costs of its reconstruction and donated most of its upholstry, it was renamed the Cathedral of the Sacred Mother and dedicated to St Mary, though the comparison to the Empress Dowager was hardly missed by contemporaries.
Themiclesian cathedrals of any size were typically divided into more or less even halves, with the west side as the chancel and the east side the nave. Depending on the scale of the church, the chancel side may include several chapels, but the nave is typically left open and undivided. In the chancel side there is a sanctuary containing a high altar and room for the clergy, surrounded by a wall or curtain if it does not occupy the entire chancel. The sanctuary is divided from the nave by means of a rood screen, where the great rood or crucifix was mounted, and there may be further screens to partition the chancel for various groups, such as a ritual choir or a cathedra (episcopal throne). The altar may be enclosed by a screen, canopy, or baldachino, with the canopy the more common in churches with royal patronage.
The rood screen (象屏, sghang-bing; lit. "screen of images") is one of the defining features of the Themiclesian church, as it is the furthest part of the church associated with the laity and is in full view of the congregation. The rood screen could be richly decorated even if other parts of the church lack ornaments, as lay parisoners may, at their own expense, improve the screen and demonstrate their affluence within the context of religious devotion. It is not uncommon to see rood screens adorned with painting and sculpture of both sacred figures and lay donors, and there was no objection as long as the donors are depicted in an appropriately religious state. It is likewise common for donors to use their own images under the names of saints, unless they contradict the church's artistic canon. There may be a rood loft to access the rood and the statue of Saint Mary, and where more painting and statuary are located.
This screen and its loft are a focal point for lay worship, as earlier Themiclesian worshippers equated it with the pedestal containing the images of deities in other religious structures. This is because the largest image of the crucified Christ was invariably located above the screen, surrounded by the saints and other figures in supplication. Commentators and diarists of the 15th century called the interior of the chancel the "concealed chamber" (宓), in which priests performed magic; except for the consecrated eucharist, the great rood was usually the physical object to which prayers were said and reverences oriented. During lessons, scriptural readings were proclaimed and the gospel displayed from the rood loft. Communicants knelt at the screen, below the rood, to receive the eucharist; this position was understood to cast the communicant in the light of a witness of the crucifixion, and in the embrace of the saints.
Within the rood screen lies the choir (the architectural term), where a ritual choir sat when services were conducted. A dedicated ritual choir was necessary as its members needed extensive training in both the language and music imported from Casaterran states, and surrounding this knowledge eventually appeared a religious community of hereditary providers of ritualistic music. The ritual choir was often but not always monastic, and their members could belong to multiple churches at the same time, offering their services for lay hiring. The presence and privilege of this community was often justified on the basis of the Old Testament, which referred to singers in the archaic temple. Where the church possesses a pipe organ, it is typically located on the choir wall or on an organ loft. The organ loft may be independent or joined with the rood loft.
The organ loft could be quite deep, up to 5 m, to accommodate an expanding musical instrument. The bottom of the organ loft was probably open in early centuries but often later fitted with doors. These are called "triple doors" (參戶, s.rum-ga), required to span the width of the organ loft, though in wide chancels there may be as many as five. The doors are invariably opened during services where a congregation was present in the nave but could be closed otherwise, especially at weekday services when only priests were present. Members of the ritual choir, as members of a religious order second to priests, were given the privilege of communication prior to the laity, at the triple doors where they are present and within the rood screen where they are not.
Beyond the organ loft was the sanctuary, where the high altar and seats for priests are located. Where the organ was located on the rood loft and triple doors absent, the presbytery was divided from the choir by an additional screen, which was typically much plainer than the rood screen. This screen came only to waist height and was not superimposed with a scalable loft. The sanctuary was often a step higher than the rest of the chancel, which itself was still a step higher than the nave. The high altar is the primary fixture of the sanctuary and rested on a number of steps. It is usually shrouded in a canopy of the style found in Themiclesian palaces, resembling a throne.