Church of Lyngaard
| Church of Lyngaard | |
|---|---|
| Lyngaard Kirke | |
 St. Maud Cathedral, seat of the Church of Lyngaard | |
| Type | Free Church |
| Orientation | Hahnian |
| Theology | Liberal |
| Polity | Modified Epsicopal |
| Supreme Authority | Christian Magnus X |
| Ecclesiastical Minister | Astrid Rohde |
| Primate | The Rt Rev. Gustav Isaksen |
| Dioceses | 12 |
| Parishes | 2,312 |
| Region | Lyngaard |
| Language | Gaetnish |
| Liturgy | Divine Services |
| Territory | Lyngaard |
| Members | 8,697,709 |
| Church buildings | 2,469 |
| Aid organization | Det Hellige Hjælpesamfund |
The Evangelical-Hahnian Church in Lyngaard, or High Church of the Crown, more commonly known as the Church of Lyngaard (Lyngaard Kirke; Nøjibweh: Mamawipayiwin, Lit: Congregation) is the established, state-supported church of Lyngaard. The Supreme secular authority of the church is the reigning monarch of Lyngaard, but independent from Parliament. As of 2018 74.2% of the population of Lyngaard belong to the church as voluntary members or converts.
Christianity was introduced to Lyngaard initially by traders in the 1500's, the first perminant church was establlished by King Christian Magnus I and presided over by Elder Emeritus St. Jacobus of the Boat. Since its founding the church has been Evangelical-Hahnic and has maintained a High Church tradition, while its relative isolation from other Hahnist traditions has allowed it to develope a unique theological doctrine in regards to church governance and theology more broadly.
The Church practices a form of congregational electoralism, where Pastors, Deacons, and Elders are either elected by or are subject to recall by the wider congregation of a church. The church does require someone to have graduated from seminary in order to be elected as a bishop by a Diocesan Synod. the larger Great Synod, made up of Bishops also elect a Primus inter pares, who mush be an elected Bishop, and serves for life or if recalled by 2/3rds of the Great Synod. Currently there are 12 Bishops, with The Rt Rev. Gustav Isaksen, Bishop of Gulsten and Stråtæktgård serving as Primate of the Church.
Organization
The Church of Lyngaard is a federalized church which uses a modified form of Presbyterian polity as the basis of its organizational structure. At the lowest level is the parish which organizes the day to day function of the church, each parish has independence on certian doctrianal issues based on the attitudes of the wider Parish. Parishes elect a council of Elders, generally the size of the council is dependent on the number of congrigants in each parish. These Elders on their own form the governing body of the parish, but also make up the parish reprasentation at a Diocesan Synod. The Diocesan Synod acts as the governing body of the Diocese, who elect a Bishop from the members of the Synod. Diocesan Synod's are responsible for wider administrative responsibilities, primariallly the administration of educational facilities owned and operated by the Diocese, maintaining church help property within the dioceese, and on insuring that all parish needs are met. The Elected Bishop who heads the Diocesan Synod is also a voting member of the Great Synod, this body made up of the 12 Bishops of Lyngaard then elect a primate who acts as the head of the faith. If a tie is to occure in the Great Synod, then the reigning monarch is to cast the tie breaking vote.
Every 10 years there is also a National Synod. This is body whichh is meant to pass major doctrinal resolutions. This Synod is made up of both the Diocesan Synod and the Great Synod, with Elders getting 3 votes, and Bishops getting 5. But there are also Lay Reprasentatives, members of a individual church who are elected by its members, every Lay Reprasentative is allocated a single vote. National Synods are established to help resolve major religious debates within the church by organizing and voting on resolutions that aim to resolve these issues, which must pass with a 2/3rd majority. If an issue is unresolved during a National Synod, the issue is then made a Parish level issue until the next National Synod.
Laypeople are allowed to serve the church in multiple roles. Laypeople are allowed to be Pastors, Missionaries, and Deacons. They obtain these possition through the grace of the Parish Elders and the consent of the Parish congregation. Elders may also be laypeople, but this is generally discouraged and exspells them from the Bishopic candidate pool in the Diocesan Synod. All laypeople who wish to become Bishops or serve higher ecclesial possitions must go through seminary.
Beliefs
Hahnism is assosiated with the theology of August Wilhelm Hahn, with its official doctinal writings found in the Book of Good Works, the Church accepts the unaltered Sachsberg Confession as a true witness to the Gospel. In the church there are Three Sacraments, Baptism, Communion, and Holy Absolution. The churches official stance is that Baptism is for both Infants and adults, typically Aspersion iss used for infants, while Immersion Baptism is used for adults and new converts during Confirmation. the believe in the Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and since 1987 have practiced Open Communion in all parishes. Holy Absolution is held as a core sacrament of the church, but some parishes have elected to discontinue the practice. The church does not believe in biblical inerrancy, opposes Charismatism, is Cessationist, and Amillennial. The church has allowed woman as is possition open for laypeople since 1957 in alignment with its posstion on the Priesthood of all believers, and has opened up its seminaries to woman in 1997, and since 2007 women have been allowed to fill any possition within the church, as. Issues such as Gay Marriage, and Abortion have been parish level issues since 2007 and 1967 respectfullly, and have come up in every National Synod List of Resiolutions, but have never been able to reach a 2/3rds vote either way since the issues were formally brought up.
Seperations
Old Order Hahnist Church of Lyngaard
The Old Order Hahnist Church of Lyngaard (Gammel Ordens Hahnistkirke Lyngaard / GOHKL) is a conservative church which split from the Lyngaardian Church in 1859 after the Natiional Synod the year prior. The seperation was brough on by a disagreement between Bishops in the church and Elder Carl Adolph Pedersen. Pedersen and his followers, the Pederites disagreed strongly with the churches motion to more firmly reject aspects of Denisotien Theology and to become more accepting of Conditional Election within the church. Old Order Hahnist also incoperated many aspects of the Christian primitivism into their theology. Old Order churches believe in Unconditional Election, and Perseverance of the saints, they typically (but not universially) practice Plain dress, have moved from the traditional Episcopal polity to Congregational polity, and in recent years have enbraced Foot Washing as a rite for all practitioners. Old Order Hahnist are also Premillennial in regards to their eschatological views.
Old Order Hahnnist tend to be seen as the most conservative of the primarially Hahnist churches which seperated from the Church of Lyngaard and helped to establish a trend of seperation as the church became more liberal in its theological outlook during the Primitivist-Modernist Contreversy. With more theological conservatives opting to either leave or seperate from the church as this controversy continued. It also helped to inspired other seperationist in the 80's and 90's as the church affirmed its High Church liturgy.
Today the Old Order Hahnist number roughly 25,000 and are mostly located in a stretch of communities on the coast, there are also many in the rural north. They are notable for their adherence to Plain Dress during sunday service and many primarially old order communities have turned to Tourism to support their churches and communities.
Church of Lyngaard, Amberg Synod
The Amberg Synod was established in 1958 as an alternative synod for churches angered by changes made at the 1958 National Synod. This seperation was promoted by Bishop Alexander Forchhammer, who resigned after the Motion The Status of Lay Women in Church Organization passed its 2/3rds majority. The motion allowed lay women to hold possitions open to lay men so long as they maintained the confidence of the parish and had the consent of the Parish Elders. Fochhammer had been the most senior, and most vocal opponent to this motion. The Amberg Synod has thus been a home to Conservative Hahnist churches both those breaking away from the Church of Lyngaard, or unaffliated churches wishing to join the Synods fold.
Since its creation the Amberg Synod has maintained its ban on women as clergy, maintains a consistently Conservative Theology, It has also maintained socially conservative viewpoints in its bidecadal confrence. Afirming its opposition to Gay Marriage, Abortion, Feminism, and other ideas which have seen more popularity in the mainline church. As of 1987 the Church of Lyngaard and the Amberg Synod have passed a resolution in recognition of each churches validity. The Amberg Synod is seen as a conservative alternative to the main church as it still maintains most of the core theological and liturgical standards. the membership of the Amberg Synod stands at roughly 350,000 baptized members.
Independent Churches of Lyngaard
Independent Churches of Lyngaard is a collection of churches, who have left the Church of Lyngaard or who were independent and joined the ICL later. The group is theologically diverse but tends to be made up of churches who have rejected high church tradition in favor of contemprary worship, and churches which were influenced by the Modern Worship Movement. Common to ICL churches is a rejection of Infint baptism, opposition to military service. These churches politically tend to be Republican and Socially Conservative, rejecting the appointment of women as clergy, Gay Marriage, Abortion, and other political issues. The ICL is a decentralized organization focused primarially on outreach and networking.
Church of the Continuance of Christ
the CCC, like the ICL, is a theologically diverse organization of churches who have joined together. Unlike the ICL, the CCC was created as a direct response to the 1988 resolution on the Rejection of Charismatism in the church. Many Charismmatic Clergy and Congregations who supported their Charismatic pastors left the church and found new congregations. The CCC was created by William Banks Hough in 1991 as a organization to allow for theres new churches to meet and organize amongst each other. The CCC quickly changed from an Interdenominational organization into a formalized denomination with a standardized belief system. the CCC has taken a firmrly continuationist position, beleiving in the continued existence of spiritual gifts within the church, including glossolalia, are Premillennial dispensationalist, and believe exclusivly in credobaptism and have rejected infant baptism outright. The CCC holds to Fehrian Theology.
Biblical Alliance of Independent Christians
Main Article: 1999 Parliament Hill Bombing
The BAIC was an seperationist church and cult located in the town of Storfyrreby, roughlly 7 km from Fyrhøgh. The group was led by Parish Elder Nikolaj Magleby who in 1992 had solidified his control over his congregation of 173 people. As his increasingly radical preaching increased the congregation eventually dwindled to about 62 people. The Parish had held meetings on the issue. Magleby had stated verious things directly in contrediction to offcial church policy, notebly that Jesus was amongst the living and that it was the job of christians everywhere to prepar for his final reveal, That god had sent him as an emmissary to prepare the world for the coming end times, and that Jesus was going to return and establish a literal Kingdom on Earth. That he must battle the anti-christ in a final battle, this battle would be where jesus would reveal himself. Other Churches in the council took issue with this and gave space to congregants leaving Magleby's church.
The Parish Council raised the issue with the Diocesan Synod, and the Diocesan Synod elected to expel Magleby from the Parish. However Magleby and his followers refused to vacate the church. a protracted legal battle between 1994 and 1998 ended in the Greaat Synod formally terminating the Parish all together, the church then claiming that the congregation was now unlawfully using church land. This did not phase the congregation and another legal battle ensued.
parallel to the legal issue, the group had been becoming more and more radical, Magleby had forced polygamy onto the congregation, forcing men to marry each others wives, and Magleby would marry said wives as well, proclaiming it a sign of gods divine love. Local authorities started to investigate Magleby when it came out that he had married the 14 year old daughter of one of his followers. The group also started to stocckpile firearms on the Church and Magleby had recruited Mikkel Lybeck, a former police officer, to train the men of the congregation on how to use these firearms. Conversly the group had started a large garden on the property, and had brough in large amounts of fertilizer for the purpose of maintaining said garden.
on the Morning of January 8th 1999, a small moving truck had parked just outside of Parliament Hill in Fyrhøgh. the Truck was driven by Stefan Gejl, a member of the BAIC and Magleby's deputy Elder. Gejl exited the truck and ran off south down the road, a few seconds later the Truck exploded. A roughly 3,200 kg explosive payload was detonated by a time fuse. The bombing destroyed Parliament Road, damaged numerous buildings within a 15 block radius, killing roughly 47 people who were on the street at the time. The design of the street and front entrence of the Parliament Building prevented the explosion from directly hitting the building and causing structural damage. The Parliament Building suffered extensive damage to the outter facade, and 7 people in the building died from the blast. Stefan Gejl's body was found not far away. he was identified through contents in his wallet, and on his body was a G3 Rifle, its barrel cut down to just 200mm and with roughly 260 rounds of ammunition on his person. It is beelieved that Gejl intended to attack the parliament building after the explosion, but he either misjusdged the time fuze, or the time fuze was imporperly set up, causing him to die in the blast.
Gejl's ties to the BAIC caused a immediate reaction, police forces attempted to arrest Magleby and bring him in for questioning, as well as to search the building for evidence regarding the attack. This resaulted in an armed standoff between the congregation and police. Ultimately ending when a fire was started after police launched chloroacetophenone canesters into the church. The congregation begane opening fire on police as the fire raged and the ensuing chaos prevents others from escaping the buring building. leading to the death of 47 of the 58 individuals inside, either from gun shot wounds, asphyxiation, or burns.