Modern Frostianity
The Faith Today · 1700+ A.F.
Modern Frostianity (the era from c. 1700 A.F. to the present canonical year, 1704 A.F.) describes the faith as it now stands: a global religion of the cold lands and far beyond, divided into its great rites yet united in the Creed and the hope of the Rewhitening, grappling with a warming world and the questions of a new age.
The Shape of the Faith
- The Hoarfrost Communion — the largest body, centered on the The Rime Pontiff of Wintermere; global, sacramental, hierarchical.
- The Glacial Orthodoxy — the ancient northern/eastern communion of patriarchates; mystical and conciliar.
- The Reformed Frostfast Churches — the many traditions born of the Reformation; scripture-centered, varied in order.
- The Sublimationist Churches — the ancient far-eastern “One-Cold” churches. Beyond these, countless local and renewal movements, and a growing body of the Far-Born (warm-land converts), continuing the mission of Vael.
Movements of the Modern Age
- The Re-Freezing of the Breach (Ecumenism) — the modern effort to heal the The Great Schism and the Reformation divisions; mutual recognition of the The Frostmark, shared care of The Glacier of the Sepulchre, and councils of dialogue.
- The Cold Awakenings — waves of popular revival emphasizing personal turning-from-warmth and the The Works of Keeping.
- The Stillness Renewal — a modern recovery of the contemplative prayer of the The Order of the Silent Drift, spreading even to the laity and the warm-born.
- The Keeping Movement — renewed emphasis on social justice, care of the poor, and (with grim relevance) care of a world whose literal warming the faithful read as a sign of the Last Thaw.
The Questions of the Age
Modern Frostians debate: the relation of the faith to a warming, secular, fast-moving (“fevered”) world; the ordination of women (practiced by many Reformed and some others, not by the older rites); the place of the deutero-rime; and how literally to read the Six Winters and the signs of the end. Through it all the faith keeps its ancient rhythm: the Hours, the Stillday, the Communion, the festal year, and the daily prayer, “Be still, and be kept.”
The Forward Hope
Whatever its divisions, modern Frostianity is united in watching for the Winter King. As the world grows warmer and more fevered, the faithful raise ever more earnestly the ancient cry that closes the canon: “Come, Winter King.”