Millions of Voices

Millions of Voices (hereafter abbreviated as MoV) is a neo-catholic or universalist Cairan religious organisation which takes as its aim the improvement of understanding between the Orthodox and Reform wings of the communion, and the gradual repair of the schism which sundered Cairony during the Reform Wars of the 18^th century. The organisation was founded in 1973 by the retired Odannach matron Mairéad níc Aodha and Florianne Broussard, a Savamese doctor and specialist in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder; it is currently headquartered in Etherley, the capital of Elland.

The organisation takes its name from a remark by the Quènien cleric Aimée de Bruzac during the abortive attempt in 1744 to oust the then-incumbent Holy Mother of the Old Savamese Argan, Téodora de Beldopoule, in which she decried “the great disturbance in our communion, and the millions of voices who will cry out in terror before they are silenced”. Bruzac’s address had been made in the immediate aftermath of the Massacre of Saint-Severin in which the inhabitants of a small village in Quènie had been slaughtered by members of a Dordanian Orthodoxist militia.

Formation and development

The initial impetus to form MoV came out of separate initiatives by its founders to give aid and support to veterans of the Gaste War, many of whom had suffered severely from the largely indiscriminate use of chemical weapons in its later stages. Although the war had been fought very largely on secular grounds, the status of Odann and Savam as the self-appointed champions of Orthodoxy and the Reformation, respectively, lent it an undoubted religious dimension, and much of the backdrop to relations between the two communions in the post-war period had been coloured by its effects on combatants. Níc Aodha was originally put into contact with Broussard through a relative who worked as a secretary at Odann’s embassy in Quesailles, and after an initial exchange of letters to establish a relationship and outline proposals, a first meeting of veteran groups from both sides of the conflict was arranged in Ediface 1973 in Etherley, which – as both opponent to Odann and a sibling Orthodox territory – was seen as a suitable “neutral venue”. Perhaps because it was kept deliberately low-key, it was remarkably successful; Broussard and níc Aodha remained in contact, and were joined as the fledgling MoV’s organisers by Frederick Hemenway, a retired Ellish army colonel who had attended the Etherley meeting and offered his services as a contact point in Elland.

The initiative came at a time when public opinion in Odann was shifting towards a more open stance to old enemies, something being very much driven by the then recently-enthroned Defender, Diarmuid II, and Ellish involvement was quick in following; response in Savam was more tentative, but gained a respectable head of steam in the next two to three years. This shift was perhaps best exemplified by the instance in 1975 in which Adrienne Marcheux, the Holy Mother of Emilia, became the first Reform cleric to conduct services in an Orthodox temple since the end of the Fourth Reform War in 1823 (and probably well before that date) during a visit to Elland in which she met with her counterpart in the Argan of Elland, Sophia Light.

The high-water mark of the rapprochement between the two Cairan communions was, unquestionably, the meeting in Etamps-La-Sainte in 1982 between the Holy Mothers of Odann and Savam. Máirín ní Thuathail and Marguerite de Morlet were both considered as “moderates” on the question, but fought down significant opposition within their respective ranks to bring about this momentous encounter. While there was still much to be examined, MoV and its supporters had genuine hopes that this would be only the beginning of the long-overdue healing process across the Cairan world; and some useful progress was made in the next few years. However, the death of Morlet in the following year took some of the momentum out of the process in the Reform ranks, and support in Odann was substantially derailed by the accession of the hard-line conservative Ultan II as Defender in 1988.

Support of what is still largely a lay organisation from the arganic level is variable. On the Orthodox side, the Argan of Odann is largely supportive at present, although some of this may be a deliberate assertion of the argan’s independence in the face of Ultan’s disparagement of the aims of MoV and other such groups. The Argan of Elland has been more restrained since the elevation of the conservative Daphne Blake to the matriarchy. Of the Reform argans, that of Brex-Sarre has perhaps been most attuned to MoV’s aims – arguably unsurprising given its responsibilities for Etamps, viewed by both camps as Cairony’s holiest city – and the current Métropolitaine of Etamps, Severine de Cholet, is a former MoV official. With Cholet’s support, the city has since 2007 sponsored an annual retreat with a view to fostering greater cross-communal discussion of matters of common interest, which takes place within the Sanctuary of the Apparition in eastern Etamps. However, the Emilian and Savamese argans are less openly supportive, and the Transvechian argan, where neo-Puritanism is perhaps at its strongest across the communion at present, has at times actively disparaged the work of MoV and others as, at best, well-meaning but misguided.

Current activity

The organisation has deliberately set out a position in which it reaches out to all branches of the Cairan communion, whether state-sanctioned or dissident argans; this has included the Darnelite Argan in Savam, as well as – somewhat more controversially – some neo-Puritan groups in various parts of Messenia. As part of this process it has, with cooperation from temple groups in several countries, sponsored exchange visits by youth groups across the communal divide; it operates this process in Emilia in partnership with the Jannes Bâttiseux organisation, which is supported by the Emilian argan.

It has also made some modest efforts to establish common ground with representatives of Messenia’s principal enhieronic religions, Arlatur and Siriash. The latter effort has not been as fruitful as might have been wished; the Tepharion, holding to a rigorous interpretation of the Divine Hierarchy, has actively sought to discourage contact from Sirian temples and faith groups as action against the core Sirian belief in the superiority of those of the faith against all others, of any belief or of none. Some individual temple groups have been more receptive, but this has been limited. MoV has had tentative contact with other Sirian compacts, but available resources have generally confined its reach to Messenia. Arlaturi organisations have been, for the most part, approving but unwilling to fully engage – a position which has been suggested as a belief there that more active participation would represent the kind of proselytization for the faith of which Arlaturi generally disapprove. However, a more positive stance – in which Arlaturi communicants take part with a view to conversion by positive example, more in keeping with their worldview – may have emerged in recent years.