Apostolic Church of Kezan
The Apostolic Church of Kezan is a Nazarene church that operates within the County Palatine of Kezan. As a registered religious institution, as opposed to the unorganized Spiritual Nazarene movement, its operations are overseen by the Information Bureau's Office of Rites and Practices.
The head of the Apostolic Church is the Metropolitan of Idassa, Ioann (Nahurui). Its headquarters is located at the Metropolitan Cathedral of St Nicholas the Wonderworker.
History
Founded as the Vicariate of Eleutheria, the early church provided spiritual services to the few Antican Nazarenes who had settled on the islands. At the time, the local Sunderneyer population practiced a decentralized form of worship based upon the Schlichting Confession. The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker was commissioned by Christopher Octavius, but was not completed until after his death.
Following the foundation of the County Palatine and a major influx of Anticans and, to a lesser extent, Elws, the landscape of Nazarene worship was transformed. Displaced Nazarenes, including a hodgepodge of clergy who had fled from both Continental Antica and Kaikias, necessitated a new ecclesiastical order in Kezan. A General Assembly of Representatives of the Antican Church Abroad was held in Panalkey Ward in 1611 AN, with representatives from the Orthodox Church of Amokolia and Elwynn, from Autocephalous Nazarene Church of Alexandria, and from the Sunderneyer Brethren.
As part of this General Assembly, communion with both the Amokolian and Alexandria churches were confirmed, a form of low ritual practice was authorized, called the Sunderneyer Rite, which adapted the worship practices of the Sunderneyer Brethren to an Orthodox theology, and a new ecclesiastical structure was confirmed. Displaced bishops, with titles to cities that no longer existed, were compelled to retire.
The decisions of the assembly were officiated on 13.X.1611 AN, at the celebration of Holy Pascha, during which the then Vicar of Eleutheria, Gheorg Narensa, was installed as Metropolitan George I of Idassa, and five priests, who had been selected by the assembly, were consecrated as bishops for each of Kezan's wards.
Not all Sunderneyer Kezanese joined the Apostolic Church of Kezan. Various splinter groups claim to succeed the Sunderneyer Brethren, maintaining competing networks of parishes overseen by lay pastors. Unity has eluded the community, which has seen additional fractures and incomplete unifications over the decades since.
Structure
The Apostolic Church of Kezan is organized into eight dioceses, headed by bishops of varying rank. Each bishop in the Apostolic Church sits on the Holy Synod of the Apostolic Church of Kezan, which meets in the annex of St Demetrius Nursery School, which itself is adjacent to St Nicholas Cathedral in Idassa. Each diocese proper maintains its own diocese council, composed of clergy and selected lay members, who elect their diocesan bishop (with approval by the Metropolitan) when the seat becomes vacant.
Vicariates are headed by auxiliary bishops, who bear the title of Vicar.
- Metropolis of Idassa: Ioann (Nahurui)
- Diocese of Penzance: Ignatius (Thierry)
- Diocese of Blacktower: Elias (Azariui)
- Diocese of Taus: Daniel (Aerius)
- Diocese of Mirabel: Mishael (Ygos)
- Diocese of Ashes: Meine (Simens)
- Diocese of Ossium: Theodosius (Ananion)
- Vicariate of West Hawshire: Hilarion (Aebigs)
- Vicariate of East Hawshire: Anthony (Laurine)
- Vicariate of Irenaea: Alexander (Tahan)
Bishops that have retired in dignity are often invited to counsel the Holy Synod, and have each been granted permission to continue serving liturgy vested in the sakkos (without an omophor) since 1611 AN. Women may be ordained into the Minor Orders (chanter, reader, subdeacon); older monastics may be ordained to the Diaconate so they may conduct presanctified liturgies for their skete.
Sunderneyer Rite
The Sunderneyer Rite is a distinct liturgical rite, authorized in 1611 AN and developed out of the local practices of the Sunderneyer Brethren. Its use is a marrying of indigenous Nazarene worship with that of the Orthodox theology taught by the Apostolic Church. Despite Kezan's cultural hegemony siding with those of Antican heritage, the Sunderneyer Rite, after almost a century of refinement, has become coequal in status with that of the imported Kaikian Rite. Typically, the Sunderneyer Rite predominates in rural communities, while the Kaikian Rite predominates in urban centers. Even in urban parishes, there will often be an attached chapel adorned and used in the Sunderneyer style.
Sunderneyer chapels are adorned very lightly, preferring either unpainted wood or plain white walls, no iconostasis, and a small, plain altar table against the eastern wall. Iconography is often limited to one of the Virgin Mary and one of Christ the Teacher, mounted to the left and right of the altar table -- other icons, if any, are placed in the chapel's antechamber. Sunderneyer-Rite liturgical services put an emphasis on lay participation, with a larger body of tonsured readers conducting what is effectively an augmented reader's service. Homilies may be offered by an elder reader or an ordained cleric.
Hymns tend to be confined to Psalms and some key theologically-laden texts borrowed from the Kaikian Rite and put into Sunderneyer Chant.
Relations with Other Churches
The Apostolic Church of Kezan is in full communion with:
It is also in partial communion (recognizing the validity of rites but do not concelebrate) with:
- Autocephalous Nazarene Church of Alexandria
- Nazarene Church of Our Lady of Monsanto
- Church of Saint Christopher
