Flags and Religion and things . . .

[Andrew Smith <hobbit@mail.earthlight.co.nz>]

I turn my back for a day and suddenly everyone starts talking.  It was fun
reading!  Thank you, all.

I think the flag is definately going to have a dragon on it but no more
precise details have been established yet.  I visited a Cornish page a few
weeks ago and was interested to discover the Cross of S. Perran, a white
cross on a black field on a two-tailed banner.  And Peter's contribution
concerning Kemr joining the European Union made me laugh.

The poetic genitive is reserved for poetic speech.  Brithenig speakers
recognise it when it is used in day-to-day language but it is not so
'intellectually'(?) neutral as using the more common Romance genitive.
It's like using a poetical motif in spoken language.  Speakers use it
regularly but recognise that it's preconditioned in how listeners
understand it.  If someone uses the poetic genitive they are either
establishing the mood of a statement or possibly being ironic.

The Church in Kemr is based on reading that I have been doing for a long
time now in the field of so-called Celtic Spirituality or Celtic
Christianity.  Celtic Christianity always identified itself with the
universal (catholic) church, but where the universal church inovated in
practices the Celtic church, out of communication with the rest of the
church, did not.  The tensions this caused was resolved by the Roman
practices rendering the Celtic practices by sheer dominance.  The Synod of
Whitby played an important role in this by giving Roman practices royal
patronage in northern England.  Slide over into Kemrese history during
this period and you will find a Kemrese/Mercian coalition dominant in
northern England up until the eve of the Viking raids.  The question of
when to celebrate Easter never occured because everyone observed Celtic
practice.  But in a more communicable age both Rome and Glastonbury sought
to restore/create the unity of Christendom.  The model they chose was
based on the Council of Florence, an attempt to avoid schism between Rome
and Constantinople, the Kemrese acknowledged the Patriarchy of Rome, but
continued in their own practices, including their own spiritual government
at Glastonbury.  They avoided some of the excesses of the Catholic church,
but not all, this is the history of the Kemrese, not the history of best
of all worlds.

The Kemrese have been in contact with the Eastern Orthodox for a very long
time.  The princes of Kemr always acknowledged the Emperor in
Constantinople their overlord after the end of the western empire.  Most
social fringe groups do not take any hopes of the restoration of the
imperial throne of the east seriously any more.  Orthodox historians see
Celtic Christianity as an example of 'Western Orthodoxy' in its pre-Whitby
form.  Some modern Celtic Christian groups indentify themselves as
Orthodox.  I don't know what the Orthodox would think of the Cambriese
Rite. Most likely the Orthodox church was too remote to consider serious
union with it, and Catholicism too immediate.

I suspect the Reformation had a weaker impact on the British in Kemrese
history.  If Kemr and England remained seperate the Plantagenet dynasty
may have remained in power and not broken with Rome.
Nonconformity/Lollardism would exist but not the Anglican Communion.  The
Wars of Religion on the continent may have been acted out in Britain also.

That was long.  It fleshed out some of my thinking of why some things
happened in Kemrese history.  If you disagree or see other trends then by
all means tell me, but remember to justify why it should be the case.  It
will probably be adapted for the next time I update Kemr on my homepage.

- andrew.

Andrew Smith                                  <hobbit@earthlight.co.nz>
Life is short, so am I...