The Hoarfrost Communion
The Great Western Body · the Church of the Rime Pontiff
The Hoarfrost Communion is the largest rite of Frostianity: the great western church united under the The Rime Pontiff of Wintermere, the heir of Corin the Coldstone. Global, sacramental, and hierarchical, it traces its visible unity to the Coldstone Succession and holds itself the principal keeper of the one Drift founded by Connor.
Governance
The Communion is hierarchical and centralized:
- The The Rime Pontiff of Wintermere — supreme pastor and teacher, holding the “keys of frost” given to Corin.
- Archhoars (archbishops), Hoarbishops (bishops), and Keepers (priests) — the threefold ministry in apostolic succession.
- Great Councils under the Pontiff define doctrine for the whole Communion.
Distinctive Teaching and Spirit
- The union of the two natures — a strong stress (with the Council of Frosthold) on Connor as truly Cold and truly mortal, perfectly one.
- The seven Keepings — the full sacramental life (see Rituals Index), with the Hardening (the bread and cup truly become Connor’s body and breath).
- Grace and cooperation — salvation begun and sustained by the Cold, but requiring the soul’s consent and growth through the sacraments and The Works of Keeping.
- The The Slush — the re-freezing of the dead, aided by the prayers of the living.
- The communion of the The Rimebound Saints — the veneration of Wenna and the saints, and their intercession.
Worship
The Hoarfrost Liturgy (the Cold Mass) is solemn and ordered, centered on the The Cold Communion at the The Cold Altar beneath the spire of the Ice-Vault Frosthall; rich in frost-chant, vestments of the liturgical colors, and the great festal cycle.
Significance
The Hoarfrost Communion is the most numerous and visible form of the faith, the keeper of Wintermere and the great pilgrimage-sites, the patron of the Renaissance and the monastic orders, and (for good and ill) the church of the Crusades and the late-medieval order against which the The Frostfast Reformation reacted. It remains the great institutional anchor of western Frostianity.