CHAT: Congregationalism & Religious Terms In Dublex (was Turtledove (was: RE: Nov 11th))

Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> comunu:

> Congregationalism is a very decentralized denomination.
> Congregationalists have few shared qualities to distinguish them from
> other denominations.  Essentially, each congregation is free to decide
> their own policy.  At least, I think that's how it is.
Andrew wrote:

> I didn;t understand the joke; I guess the joke is that
> Congregationalism is all things to all people, but I know nothing
> about Congregationalism, unless that's what the loonies in _Old
> Mortality_ (now ***THAT's*** a brilliant book) are.
Wow, am I the only Congregationalist on this list?!  I grew up in this
demonination in Ohio, and my father for a few years was a Congregational
minister.  He moved us to Arizona to start the first NACCC church in that
state.  Later my family moved to Massachusetts, where I was delighted to
discover one or even two Congregationalist Churchs in most towns -- unlike
Arizona, people knew what I was when I said I was a Congregationalist.
Congregationalism can be traced back to 1620 in America with the Mayflower
Compact, and before that can be traced to the Anabaptists;
Congregationalism is the modern descendant of the Pilgrims (who were
separatist Congregationalists), so Thanksgiving is a very special holiday to
me, being special because of my religion and because I used to live in
Plymouth (about 15 miles south of where I now live) [American Thanksgiving
is this Thursday].  Those interested in the history of Congregationalism
should check out Encyclopedia Britannica (now free!):

http://search.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/0/0,5716,26270+1,00.html

Or Marion L Starkey's book _The Congregational Way_:

http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/exchange-glance/Y04Y5581342Y3318310/qid=
943330254/sr=1-1/ref=z_ob_qs/002-2100049-9761069

If you're not that interested, skip ahead to a list of Dublex words for
different religions and denominations.

In the United States, Congregationalism has divided a number of times, and
the Unitarian Universalists are an offshoot of it.  I briefly attended a UU
church in college in Arizona after my folks had moved to Mass.;  where
Congregational churchs self-organize around the Bible, UU churches look to
all religious teachings for inspiration.  The two main branches are the
NACCC (National Association of Congregational Christian Churches), which is
much more conservative than the UCC (United Church of Christ), which is one
of the most liberal churches in America (it was the first church to
institute a rite for divorce, this being a ceremony where a marriage is
solemnly dissolved).  I was brought up in the UCC, then our church in Ohio
switched to the NACCC.

Each Congregational Church is a miniature democracy in action.  The church
in Norwell is in the UCC, so I'm "Back in the UCC", and provides a good
example of Congregationalism.  For the last two or three years, our
congregation has been exploring what the Bible has to say about gays and
lesbians, with special Bible studies, seminars and sermons.  Recently, our
church voted to accept gays and lesbians as parishioners and as ministers.
This angered about a third of the church members, who are now seriously
considering abandoning our congregation.  While democracy on the scale of a
country works well (I'm not going to leave the country even if I disagree
with most of the politicians), democracy on the scale of a congregation does
not work as well, since congregations can split over issues;  it is very
easy to leave a church community.  For instance, I've seen splits occur
because church members did not like the pastor that was selected
(congregations select their own pastor;  my father was a layman who became
an excellent interim pastor in Ohio to fill our church's vacancy until a
full-time pastor could be found).

The Congregational Church is the antithesis of the Catholic Church.  Just
about anything related to hierarchy in the Catholic Church is exactly
opposite in the Congregational Church.  This was brought home to me two
years ago when I tried and failed to become Catholic (my wife of nine years
is Catholic).

So there you have it, more than you ever wanted to know about
Congregationalism!

To bring this back to conlanging, here are some possible words in Dublex for
churches and denominations (remember that 'h' is pronounced /sh/):

devbin [god+building]  church, synagogue, temple -- a building for worship

devbinpub [church(god+building)+people-group]  congregation -- the members
of a specific religious group who regulary worship in a particular church

devcapt [god+leader]  rabbi, priest, presbyter, curate, minister, parson,
pastor, rector -- a person authorized to conduct religious worship

terdevvandev [three+god+one+god]  Trinity, Holy Trinity, Blessed Trinity --
the union of the Father and Son and Holy Ghost in one Godhead

devsist [god+system] religion, faith -- an institution created to express
belief in a divine power

carsdevsist [cross+religion(god-system)] Christianity, Christian religion --
the system of Christian beliefs and practices

carsdevhuman [cross+god+human]  Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ,
Christ, Savior, Saviour, Good Shepherd, Redeemer -- a Jewish prophet of the
first century (circa 8 BC - 29 AD) slain on a cross by the Romans; to
Christians he was both God and man: the Messiah sent to save the human race
from the sin it inherited through the Fall of Man

devhuman [god+human]  messiah, christ -- any expected deliverer

vandevsist [one+god+system]  monotheism -- belief in a single God

hunperdevsist [choice+people+religion(god+system)]  Judaism -- the
monotheistic religion of the Jews; based on the Old Testament and the Talmud

vavosidecdevsist [Koran+religion(god+system)]  Islam, Islamism,
Mohammedanism, Muhammadanism, Muslimism -- the monotheistic religion of
Muslims based on the Koran

vavosidec (vanvocsisti devcitab) [one+language(word+system)+god+book, from
the belief that the Koran should not be translated] Koran, Quran -- sacred
writings of Islam

devcaptcitab [rabbi(god+leader)+book] Talmud -- sacred writings forming the
basis of religious authority in Orthodox Judaism

pendevcitab [five+god+book]  Pentateuch, Torah, Laws -- the first five books
of the Old Testament considered as a unit

salfdevcitab [old+god+book]  Old Testament -- the collection of books
comprising the sacred Scripture of the Hebrews and recording their history
as the chosen people; the first half of the Christian Bible

sialfdevcitab [new+god+book]  New Testament -- the collection of books of
the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, Pauline and other Epistles, and
Revelation; composed soon after Christ's death; the second half of the
Christian Bible

hardevcitab [four+god+book]  Gospel, Gospels, evangel -- four books in the
New Testament that tell the story of Christ's life and teachings

vancarsdevsist [first+Christianity(cross+religion(god-system))] Catholicism,
Catholicity -- the beliefs and practices of any of several churches claiming
to have maintained historical continuity with the original Christian Church

roccarsdevsist [Rock+Christianity(cross+religion(god-system)), from Roman
Catholic belief that St. Peter was the first Pope (Peter's name meaning
"Rock")] Romanism, Roman Catholicism -- (the beliefs and practices of the
Catholic Church based in Rome)

duvcarsdevsist [second+Christianity] Protestantism -- the theological system
of any of the churches of Western Christendom that separated from the Roman
Catholic Church during the Reformation

devsent [god+emotion] religion, faith, religious belief -- a strong belief
in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny

devsenti carsdevsist [faith+Christianity] Lutheranism -- teachings of Martin
Luther emphasizing the cardinal doctrine of justification by faith alone

pubcarsdevsist [people-group+Christianity]  Congregationalism -- system of
beliefs and church government of a Protestant denomination in which each
member church is self-governing


And there are so many other denominations and religions yet to name!


Best regards,

Jeffrey Henning
http://www.LangMaker.com/ - Invent Your Own Language
http://www.onelist.com/files/dublexgame/ - Win $100 in the DublexGame
contest!

"If Bill Gates had a nickel for every time Windows crashed....  Oh, wait, he
does!"