To the arrogant members of the board, lineage, wealth, and social status inherently guarantee their right to power and control. This group of privileged Anglicans - citizens from the village of Abersthwaithe on the small island of Ischalton believe they can use their elevated role to govern over those they consider insignificant.
One lone group stands against them. The legal officers of St. Patrick's church in the village struggle to retain their authority against the board, but it is a fight that will take immense strength. The board employs every form of moral turpitude possible in its quest for victory. They lure the people from surrounding villages-the very people they despise-to help them gnaw at the fabric which binds them together as a church and as a community.
The betrayal, adultery, and murder among the members of the Board, juxtaposed with the ignorance, naivete, and pitiable simplemindedness of the villagers, weaves a complex tapestry of circumstances which threaten to bring the steeple of contradiction crumbling to the ground-and could forever alter the future of Abersthwaithe.
"The Ecclesiastical Chronicles" is the first in a stunning new series by Raymond Gordon that explores how the relentless pursuit to fulfill ambition eventually leads to ultimate destruction.

Continuing the epic story of the struggle between poor and rich as told in the first volume of The Ecclesiastical Chronicles, Raymond Gordon's new novel, The Society, returns to the polished pews of St. Patrick's Church in the village of Abersthwaithe on the small island of Ischalton. Following the scandalous inability of the Board of Advisers to the Vestry to honor their financial commitment to build a new, "improved" church in nearby Brewster's Village, the Bishop has made the group defunct. Even so, the members who formed the board, along with their newly recruited henchmen, continue their surreptitious plan to eradicate the "stench of serfdom" from St. Patrick's Church. Personal conflicts, the quest for acceptance, concupiscence, the struggle for control, and "civil war" among the peasants once again cast their dark, sinister shadows over the church, thus proving that although pious humans may have a greater proclivity to moral rectitude, they nevertheless possess an innate and ironic propensity to degeneracy. The Ecclesiastical Chronicles offers a profound and sobering look at how hypocrisy and self-righteousness can destroy the foundation of Christ's work, resulting in misery for all.

Continuing the epic story of the struggle between poor and rich as told in the first volume of The Ecclesiastical Chronicles, Raymond Gordon's new novel, The Society, returns to the polished pews of St. Patrick's Church in the village of Abersthwaithe on the small island of Ischalton. Following the scandalous inability of the Board of Advisers to the Vestry to honor their financial commitment to build a new, "improved" church in nearby Brewster's Village, the Bishop has made the group defunct. Even so, the members who formed the board, along with their newly recruited henchmen, continue their surreptitious plan to eradicate the "stench of serfdom" from St. Patrick's Church. Personal conflicts, the quest for acceptance, concupiscence, the struggle for control, and "civil war" among the peasants once again cast their dark, sinister shadows over the church, thus proving that although pious humans may have a greater proclivity to moral rectitude, they nevertheless possess an innate and ironic propensity to degeneracy. The Ecclesiastical Chronicles offers a profound and sobering look at how hypocrisy and self-righteousness can destroy the foundation of Christ's work, resulting in misery for all.

To the arrogant members of the board, lineage, wealth, and social status inherently guarantee their right to power and control. This group of privileged Anglicans - citizens from the village of Abersthwaithe on the small island of Ischalton believe they can use their elevated role to govern over those they consider insignificant.
One lone group stands against them. The legal officers of St. Patrick's church in the village struggle to retain their authority against the board, but it is a fight that will take immense strength. The board employs every form of moral turpitude possible in its quest for victory. They lure the people from surrounding villages-the very people they despise-to help them gnaw at the fabric which binds them together as a church and as a community.
The betrayal, adultery, and murder among the members of the Board, juxtaposed with the ignorance, naivete, and pitiable simplemindedness of the villagers, weaves a complex tapestry of circumstances which threaten to bring the steeple of contradiction crumbling to the ground-and could forever alter the future of Abersthwaithe.
"The Ecclesiastical Chronicles" is the first in a stunning new series by Raymond Gordon that explores how the relentless pursuit to fulfill ambition eventually leads to ultimate destruction.