Nazarene
The Nazarene religion, an off-shoot of the Ashkenatzi religion, is one of the larger monotheistic religions in Micras. It is also a highly diverse religion with numerous denominations in various cultures. It is also related to the Umraist religion.
Beliefs
Nazarenes generally believe in one incorporeal God, but God (generally used with the pronoun he) also has three shapes or avatars, known as the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. These avatars have a complicated relationship to one another and the exact nature of their divinity is under a lot of debate, sometimes violent too.
In Nazarene belief, God is the creator of the heavens and all the planets, including Micras. He chose the Ashkenatzis as his own people, guiding them tens of millennia ago across the wastelands of Benacia. God communicated to his people through prophets and sometimes through angels. However, after some time, God grew tired of this arrangement of communication and decided that he would now be a god for everyone on the planet, and had himself incarnated as a child with the name Yeshua. His mother was known as Miryam. Yeshua preached the new rules of God (now known as "The Father") to the Ashkenatzis and was generally ridiculed by them, but managed to get some followers. The followers very quite good and spreading the message of God Father and Yeshua to the non-Ashkenatzis, especially the people that would be known as the Tellians, Cisamarrese, and later, also to the Alexandrians, Martinos, Matbaics, and Atterans. In the end, the Ashkenatzis, now occupied by the Machiavellians, had Yeshua executed for public disorder.
Nazarenes believe in the eternity of the soul, but for the soul to have a good existence after death, the soul must acclaim Yeshua as the son of God, confess all sins to God and seek God's forgiveness for them. All other souls will be separated from God upon death. The nature of this post-life existence is also heavily debated among the Nazarenes.
They commune with their God through a ritual known as communion. They share wine and bread during a service. Other sacraments are baptism, marriage, and the anointing of the ill.
Holidays
- Six-day week
- God created the world in 5 days, rested on the sixth
- Last day of the week is the Day of the Lord
Liturgial year
Real-life analogues in Italics
- Day of the Birth of the Lord (Christmas) occurs on the second day of the Lord following the solstice of month II.
- 18.II (January, March, May, July, August, October, December)
- 24.II (April, June, September, November)
- 6.III (February in leap years)
- 12.III (February)
- Fastentide (Lent) begins forty days before the Day of Resurrection, and ends with that same day:
- 14.IV (January, March, May, July, August, October, December)
- 20.IV (April, June, September, November, and February in leap years)
- 2.V (February)
- Day of Resurrection (Easter) occurs on the first day of the Lord following the equinox of month VI:
- 6.VI (January, March, May, July, August, October, December)
- 12.VI (April, June, September, November, and February in leap years)
- 18.VI (February)
Organization
The Nazarene faith is organised in several denominations and churches. They are generally in a Catholic or Orthodox tradition or communion, but exceptions exist. Reformed denominations are found in both branches of the religion, and reformed denominations are actually more similar with one another than with the greater branch they stem from.
The following tree reflects the descent of various denominations.
- Nazarene religion
- Catholic denominations[1]
- Autocephalous Nazarene Church of Alexandria
- Aerlan Nazarene Church [2]
- Church of Gotzborg (defunct)
- Church of Treisenberg (defunct)
- Church of Stormark (defunct)
- Norman Catholic Church (defunct)
- Norman Church of Amaland (reformed)
- Norman Church of Karnamark (reformed)
- Presbyterian Church of Normandie (mainly found in the Green, but also in Amaland and Karnamark) (reformed)
- Norman Catholic Church (defunct)
- Church of Nidaros, Riskai and Varmland
- Catholic Church of Krasnarus (defunct)
- Nazarene Church of Our Lady of Monsanto, Cisamarra, Sanama
- Church of the Holy Lance (reformed)
- Church of Floria (reformed)
- Protestant Church in the South Sea Islands (reformed)
- Ludwiggian Reformed Church (reformed)
- Orthodox denominations
- Ocian Orthodox Church
- Antican Church of the Nazarenes (defunct)
- Matbaic Orthodox Church
- Nazarene Congregations in Calbion (reformed)
- Eklesian Orthodox Church
- Patriarchal Orthodox Church of the Faith (Disputed by Deist and Zurvanite factions)
- Gnostic denominations
- Humanist denominations
- Keltian restorationism
- Catholic denominations[1]
Notes
- ^ The Catholic community itself divided into the episcopal and presbyterian traditions but, in the absence of any overarching transnational religious authority towards whom doctrinal deference is due, this distinction is largely an administrative one - excepting one or two absurd arguments such as concerning the nature of the host upon the moment of its consecration.
- ^ In full communion with the Autocephalous Nazarene Church of Alexandria, but holds its own distinct liturgical rites.
