United Branch Militant of the Seventh Coming

This is a splinter group of the original Church of the Seventh Coming that colonised the planet Venus in the Sol system before moving to Canaan. The United Branch Militant has long been suppressed by the RNV as subversive, however it has never the less survived and spread, albeit slowly and as a minority sect. It claims some 10 million adherents universe wide, although no-one really believed that until recently. On Deadlock it appears to have about 750,000 members, with more arriving every day. This is largely because the UBM decided in 3175 to manage migration to a single system to gain a critical mass for freedom of worship.

Their key point of departure from the main Church of the Seventh Coming is their view that the passage authored by Samuel Cooke that was quoted in the Book of Semaj (his surviving diaries, the Semaj Codex and selected parts of his published works on the external communication that he had) was a key part of the text and that it contained directions on the correct structure of the Church. They also tend towards more literal interpretations of the various holy works.

The head of the church is called “The High Panjandrum”, and the next layer down consists of 12 Joblillies, there are also Bishops and a group of Zealots.

The Church doesn't believe in democracy in making high appointments, nor apparently in general (however it appears that there is a pragmatic streak in achieving its strategic goals to use the weaknesses of its opponents to legitimise its acquisitions).