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"Everyone fears death... But at the Church of Eternal Life, they promise just what the name says. And they can prove it."
Anita Blake[src]


The Church of Eternal Life is a vampire Church, the St. Louis branch of which is led by Malcolm. The main building is located just off Page Avenue.

Description[]

The main building of the Church is startling white, and set in an expanse of naked ground broken up by some young trees that aren't yet large enough for proper shade. There is a asphalt-covered parking lot. The stained glass windows of the building are all abstract color and as devoid of religious imagery and symbols as the rest of it, giving the building an unfinished look. Board steps lead up to huge double doors at the front. One of them is kept open at least on hot summer days, and the other one has a sign "Enter Friend and be at Peace."

Inside the building there are polished wooden pews in two wide rows leading up to where one would expect an altar. In this case there's just a pulpit with blank blue wall, surrounded by more white upsweeping walls. The floor is likewise white, and the windows are red and blue stained glass. The room is softly lit during services, possibly by candles.

There's a small door to one side of the pulpit, leading into a carpeted, air-conditioned hallway. Bathrooms are to the left, and to the right there is an open room where coffee and blood is served after services. There is a small door that leads outside, marked "Exit", and another that leads to the offices marked by a small sign "Office".

The outer office is a small room that contains a secretarial desk and other such features, complete with a leatherbound day planner for scheduling purposes, at least one chair for customers in front of the desk, and at least one other chair against the wall where a visitor can wait with a magazine for admittance to the inner office. The inner office belongs to Malcolm, and appears to be his daytime resting place.

On the rare occasions that violence happens within our outside of the church building, evidence of it (such as blood on the steps) is cleaned away quickly and thoroughly.

Organization[]

The Church of Eternal Life is considered on of the fastest growing congregations in North America. Most of the members are vampires, although the services are popular enough that the pews are almost full even before sunset. A human who wants to join the Church officially (and become a vampire) has to be at least 18 years old. Human members do daytime recruiting from door to door, and in the evenings, before service, there are people right inside the church doors handing out pamphlets.

The location of the main building of the Church is intentionally chosen to be far from the District, where many of the more commercial and sinful vampire businesses are gathered. The Church does not condone such venues, and actively discourages its members from visiting them. They consider themselves as mainstream undead.

At the time of Guilty Pleasures there is a small, more violent faction within the Church who go far enough to attack events such as freak parties in order to shut them down, even if Malcolm disapproves and has told the members to use legal means for those purposes instead. He does not punish them for disobedience, though, and does not consider himself an equivalent of their priest.

The Church does not blood-oath its members, not wanting to enslave them to one vampire. This is in direct violation of the laws set forth by the Vampire Council.

Events[]

In Guilty Pleasures Anita and Ronnie visit the main building of the Church in daytime in order to schedule a meeting with Malcolm for that evening. When they leave there's an amateur assassin waiting for them outside, shooting at Anita, and they are forced to shoot him to the front steps in turn. When Anita returns that evening for the scheduled meeting a service is just about to start and there's no sign of the blood left at the steps. The meeting with Malcolm leaves Anita with more questions than answers, but Malcolm denies having a part in the vampire murders, and promises to look into the attempt at Anita's life. The service starts while Malcolm is still with Anita, indicating that his presence isn't necessary at least for the entirety of it.

In Burnt Offerings the main building of the Church is bombed and burned by Humans First; the reaction of the general public to this terrorist act produce wave of donations, so the building is restored.

In Incubus Dreams Anita with Zerbrowski, Marconi, Smith and a number of uniformed officers come to the Church initially to arrest and execute Church member Avery Seabrook, suspect in murdered stripper investigation. Malcolm tries to use his vampire powers to read Anita's mind, which temporarily enables Anita to "borrow" his mind-reading power. Using this power Anita clears Avery as innocent, finds a true member of serial killer group, Jonah Cooper, and gets the location of serial killers' daytime lair. After that Anita executes Jonah Cooper near the parking lot.

In The Harlequin the main building of the Church is the scene of confrontation between the rogue Harlequin which are still alive and Jean-Claude's group including Asher, Damian, Wicked, Truth, Anita, Micah, Nathaniel, wererat, werewolf and werehyena guards, werelions under Haven, and Edward with Olaf. Initially the confrontation is meant to show who can sway audience of Church members to whose side, and Anita manages counter attacks of Columbine with help of Micah and of her triumvirate. Malcolm blood-oaths himself and his congregation to Anita via Damian to protect it from being taken over by Columbine, which enables Anita to put love and friendship into ardeur. More direct attack of Columbine on Jean-Claude doesn't come because Nathaniel rises the question whether attackers in truth are Harlequin. In the end Pantalone, at the time hiding himself with invisibility/reluctance spell, produces darkness and under such cover tries to kill Anita. Remus covers her with his own body and is killed. Wicked and Truth wade into the darkness, cut Pantalone's arm off and stop him at the swordpoints. During the interrogation of Pantalone Marmee Noir uses Anita's rage to manifest herself as an apparition, convicts Pantalone and his false Columbine, and declares that Anita should live as Jean-Claude's human servant. With help of Jean-Claude and ardeur Anita shuts down Marmee Noir's apparition. Next Anita executes Pantalone, Columbine, and her human servant.

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