The Church has been subsumed into the
Orzhov Syndicate. Consequently, its structure is identical.
To guide all peoples to an eternal life of wealth and opulence.
As a religion that equates sin to to debt and forgiveness to repayment, the Church--and by extension the Syndicate--is the wealthiest organization in Ravnica. Its assets are traditional: gold, art pieces, artifacts, one-of-a-kind or hand-crafted works.
The Church predates the Guildpact. At its signing, the Syndicate and the Church were separate but related entities. At some point over the next ten millennia, they became a single organization.
The masses toiled and drudged. They spent years, decades, centuries building to crumble and forget. A few small sparks had hope, but the brightest flames had purpose.
Those flames built to persist. When their lives had finished and their bodies fell away to nothing, their souls, rich in faith, remained to grow all they accomplished in life.
When the masses saw them, they awed. Some grew jealous, others sought to emulate them. These living spirits showed the masses purpose. They taught them sin and forgiveness, debt and repayment.
Over time these living spirits swelled their ranks and guided the masses. Some became complacent in their spiritual domain, others tired of their purpose and sought to cheat their faith. Their souls became poor and untethered. Everything they had wrought crumbled to nothing.
Learning from their negligent companions, the remaining spirits renewed their efforts and brought their teachings to all who offered the tithe of faith.
By its nature, The Church doesn't focus beyond the physical world.
Everything you do in life matters; you will take it beyond. Spirits are an accident, but your faith gives your soul purpose. If you do not give yourself fully, none of what you do will carry with you. If you find yourself falling, your faith will keep you tethered.
Worshippers pay tithes to prove they are maintaining their work and their faith. When they fall behind on their tithes, they incur sinful debts to be repaid as forgiveness.
To keep their soul tethered to their mortal works, they must maintain their tithes. If they die while in debt, Church patrons can hold their soul until it is repaid. Upon repayment, they are judged worthy of eternal life, or not.
The Archs--living Parriarchs and deceased Animarchs--oversee basilicas and cathedrals. Smaller churches are appointed pontiffs. By congregation wealth, each pontiff manages a staff of knights, ministrants, and syndics.
In everyday life, these individuals look like any other wealthy citizen of Ravnica. Only for feast days, masses, and official ceremonies do they don their traditional vestments.
Powerful spirits or patron angels posses the ability to grant power to their worshippers.
The Church has curated a culture of debt and repayment within and around their places of worship; the communities around them usually comprise indebted laborers.
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