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Excommunication

Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in communion with other members of the congregation, and of receiving the sacraments.

It is practiced by all of the ancient churches (such as the Catholic Church, Oriental Orthodox churches and the Eastern Orthodox churches) as well as by other Christian denominations, but it is also used more generally to refer to similar types of institutional religious exclusionary practices and shunning among other religious groups. The Amish have also been known to excommunicate members that were either seen or known for breaking rules, or questioning the church, a practice known as shunning. Jehovah's Witnesses use the term disfellowship to refer to their form of excommunication.

The word excommunication means putting a specific individual or group out of communion. In some denominations, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group. Excommunication may involve banishment, shunning, and shaming, depending on the group, the offense that caused excommunication, or the rules or norms of the religious community. The grave act is often revoked in response to manifest repentance.

Bahá'í Faith

Excommunication among Bahá'ís is rare and generally not used for transgressions of community standards, intellectual dissent, or conversion to other religions. Instead, it is the most severe punishment, reserved for suppressing organized dissent that threatens the unity of believers. Covenant-breaker is a term used by Bahá'ís to refer to a person who has been excommunicated from the Bahá'í community for breaking the 'Covenant': actively promoting schism in the religion or otherwise opposing the legitimacy of the chain of succession of leadership.

Currently, the Universal House of Justice has the sole authority to declare a person a Covenant-breaker, and once identified, all Bahá'ís are expected to shun them, even if they are family members. According to 'Abdu'l Baha Covenant-breaking is a contagious disease. The Bahá'í writings forbid association with Covenant-breakers and Bahá'ís are urged to avoid their literature, thus providing an exception to the Bahá'í principle of independent investigation of truth. Most Bahá'ís are unaware of the small Bahá'í divisions that exist.

Christianity
The purpose of excommunication is to exclude from the church those members who have behaviors or teachings contrary to the beliefs of a Christian community (heresy). It aims to protect members of the church from abuses and allow the offender to recognize their error and repent.

Catholic Church

Within the Catholic Church, there are differences between the discipline of the majority Latin Church regarding excommunication and that of the Eastern Catholic Churches.

Latin Church
Excommunication can be either latae sententiae (automatic, incurred at the moment of committing the offense for which canon law imposes that penalty) or ferendae sententiae (incurred only when imposed by a legitimate superior or declared as the sentence of an ecclesiastical court).

The Catholic Church teaches in the Council of Trent that "excommunicated persons are not members of the Church, because they have been cut off by her sentence from the number of her children and belong not to her communion until they repent".

In the papal bull Exsurge Domine (May 16, 1520), Pope Leo X condemned Luther's twenty-third proposition according to which "excommunications are merely external punishments, nor do they deprive a man of the common spiritual prayers of the Church". Pope Pius VI in Auctorem Fidei (August 28, 1794) condemned the notion which maintained that the effect of excommunication is only exterior because of its own nature it excludes only from exterior communion with the Church, as if, said the pope, excommunication were not a spiritual penalty binding in heaven and affecting souls. The excommunicated person, being excluded from the society of the Church, still bears the indelible mark of Baptism and is subject to the jurisdiction of the Church. They are excluded from engaging in certain activities. These activities are listed in Canon 1331 §1, and prohibit the individual from any ministerial participation in celebrating the sacrifice of the Eucharist or any other ceremonies of worship; celebrating or receiving the sacraments; or exercising any ecclesiastical offices, ministries, or functions.

Under current Catholic canon law, excommunicates remain bound by ecclesiastical obligations such as attending Mass, even though they are barred from receiving the Eucharist and from taking an active part in the liturgy (reading, bringing the offerings, etc.). "Excommunicates lose rights, such as the right to the sacraments, but they are still bound to the obligations of the law; their rights are restored when they are reconciled through the remission of the penalty."

These are the only effects for those who have incurred a latae sententiae excommunication. For instance, a priest may not refuse Communion publicly to those who are under an automatic excommunication, as long as it has not been officially declared to have been incurred by them, even if the priest knows that they have incurred it—although if the person's offence was a "manifest grave sin", then the priest is obliged to refuse their communion by canon 915. On the other hand, if the priest knows that excommunication has been imposed on someone or that an automatic excommunication has been declared (and is no longer merely an undeclared automatic excommunication), he is forbidden to administer Holy Communion to that person.

In the Catholic Church, excommunication is normally resolved by a declaration of repentance, profession of the Creed (if the offense involved heresy) and an Act of Faith, or renewal of obedience (if that was a relevant part of the offending act, i.e., an act of schism) by the excommunicated person and the lifting of the censure (absolution) by a priest or bishop empowered to do this. "The absolution can be in the internal (private) forum only, or also in the external (public) forum, depending on whether scandal would be given if a person were privately absolved and yet publicly considered unrepentant."

Eastern Catholic Churches
In the Eastern Catholic Churches, excommunication is imposed only by decree, never incurred automatically by latae sententiae excommunication. A distinction is made between minor and major excommunication. Those on whom minor excommunication has been imposed are excluded from receiving the Eucharist and can also be excluded from participating in the Divine Liturgy. They can even be excluded from entering a church when divine worship is being celebrated there. The decree of excommunication must indicate the precise effect of the excommunication and, if required, its duration.

Those under major excommunication are in addition forbidden to receive not only the Eucharist but also the other sacraments, to administer sacraments or sacramentals, to exercise any ecclesiastical offices, ministries, or functions whatsoever, and any such exercise by them is null and void. They are to be removed from participation in the Divine Liturgy and any public celebrations of divine worship. They are forbidden to make use of any privileges granted to them and cannot be given any dignity, office, ministry, or function in the church, they cannot receive any pension or emoluments associated with these dignities etc., and they are deprived of the right to vote or to be elected.

Eastern Orthodox Church
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, excommunication is the exclusion of a member from the Eucharist. It is not expulsion from the churches. This can happen for such reasons as not having confessed within that year; excommunication can also be imposed as part of a penitential period. It is generally done with the goal of restoring the member to full communion. Before an excommunication of significant duration is imposed, the bishop is usually consulted. The Eastern Orthodox do have a means of expulsion, by pronouncing anathema, but this is reserved only for acts of serious and unrepentant heresy. As an example of this, the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, in its eleventh capitula, declared: "If anyone does not anathematize Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, Apollinaris, Nestorius, Eutyches and Origen, as well as their impious writings, as also all other heretics already condemned and anathematized by the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, and by the aforesaid four Holy Synods and [if anyone does not equally anathematize] all those who have held and hold or who in their impiety persist in holding to the end the same opinion as those heretics just mentioned: let him be anathema."

Lutheran churches
Although Lutheranism technically has an excommunication process, some denominations and congregations do not use it. In the Smalcald Articles Luther differentiates between the "great" and "small" excommunication. The "small" excommunication is simply barring an individual from the Lord's Supper and "other fellowship in the church". While the "great" excommunication excluded a person from both the church and political communities which he considered to be outside the authority of the church and only for civil leaders. A modern Lutheran practice is laid out in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod's 1986 explanation to the Small Catechism, defined beginning at Questions No. 277–284, in "The Office of Keys".

Many Lutheran denominations operate under the premise that the entire congregation (as opposed to the pastor alone) must take appropriate steps for excommunication, and there are not always precise rules, to the point where individual congregations often set out rules for excommunicating laymen (as opposed to clergy). For example, churches may sometimes require that a vote must be taken at Sunday services; some congregations require that this vote be unanimous.

In the Church of Sweden and the Church of Denmark, excommunicated individuals are turned out from their parish in front of their congregation. They are not forbidden, however, to attend church and participate in other acts of devotion, although they are to sit in a place appointed by the priest (which was at a distance from others).

The Lutheran process, though rarely used, has created unusual situations in recent years due to its somewhat democratic excommunication process. One example was an effort to get serial killer Dennis Rader excommunicated from his denomination (the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) by individuals who tried to "lobby" Rader's fellow church members into voting for his excommunication.

Church of England
The Church of England does not have any specific canons regarding how or why a member can be excommunicated, although it has a canon according to which ecclesiastical burial may be refused to someone "declared excommunicate for some grievous and notorious crime and no man to testify to his repentance".

The punishment of imprisonment for being excommunicated from the Church of England was removed from English law in 1963.

Historian Christopher Hill found that, in pre-revolutionary England, excommunication was common but fell into disrepute because it was applied unevenly and could be avoided on payment of fines.

Episcopal Church of the United States of America
The ECUSA is in the Anglican Communion, and shares many canons with the Church of England which would determine its policy on excommunication.

Reformed churches
In the Reformed Churches, excommunication has generally been seen as the culmination of church discipline, which is one of the three marks of the Church. The Westminster Confession of Faith sees it as the third step after "admonition" and "suspension from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper for a season." Yet, John Calvin argues in his Institutes of the Christian Religion that church censures do not "consign those who are excommunicated to perpetual ruin and damnation", but are designed to induce repentance, reconciliation and restoration to communion. Calvin notes, "though ecclesiastical discipline does not allow us to be on familiar and intimate terms with excommunicated persons, still we ought to strive by all possible means to bring them to a better mind, and recover them to the fellowship and unity of the Church."

At least one modern Reformed theologian argues that excommunication is not the final step in the disciplinary process. Jay E. Adams argues that in excommunication, the offender is still seen as a brother, but in the final step they become "as the heathen and tax collector" (Matthew 18:17). Adams writes, "Nowhere in the Bible is excommunication (removal from the fellowship of the Lord's Table, according to Adams) equated with what happens in step 5; rather, step 5 is called 'removing from the midst, handing over to Satan,' and the like."

Former Princeton president and theologian, Jonathan Edwards, addresses the notion of excommunication as "removal from the fellowship of the Lord's Table" in his treatise entitled "The Nature and End of Excommunication". Edwards argues: "'Particularly, we are forbidden such a degree of associating ourselves with (excommunicants), as there is in making them our guests at our tables, or in being their guests at their tables; as is manifest in the text, where we are commanded to have no company with them, no not to eat [...] That this respects not eating with them at the Lord's supper, but a common eating, is evident by the words, that the eating here forbidden, is one of the lowest degrees of keeping company, which are forbidden. Keep no company with such a one, saith the apostle, no not to eat – as much as to say, no not in so low a degree as to eat with him. But eating with him at the Lord's supper, is the very highest degree of visible Christian communion. Who can suppose that the apostle meant this: Take heed and have no company with a man, no not so much as in the highest degree of communion that you can have? Besides, the apostle mentions this eating as a way of keeping company which, however, they might hold with the heathen. He tells them, not to keep company with fornicators. Then he informs them, he means not with fornicators of this world, that is, the heathens; but, saith he, 'if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, etc. with such a one keep no company, no not to eat.' This makes it most apparent, that the apostle doth not mean eating at the Lord's table; for so, they might not keep company with the heathens, any more than with an excommunicated person'."

Methodism
In the Methodist Episcopal Church, individuals were able to be excommunicated following "trial before a jury of his peers, and after having had the privilege of an appeal to a higher court". Nevertheless, an excommunication could be lifted after sufficient penance.

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Churches, excommunicated sixty-four members from the Newcastle Methodist society alone for the following reasons:

The Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection, in its 2014 Discipline, includes "homosexuality, lesbianism, bi-sexuality, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery, and any attempt to alter one's gender by surgery", as well as remarriage after divorce among its excommunicable offences.

The Evangelical Wesleyan Church, in its 2015 Discipline, states that "Any member of our church who is accused of neglect of the means of grace or other duties required by the Word of God, the indulgence of sinful tempers, words or actions, the sowing of dissension, or any other violation of the order and discipline of the church, may, after proper labor and admonition, be censured, placed on probation, or expelled by the official board of the circuit of which he is a member. If he request a trial, however, within thirty dates of the final action of the official board, it shall be granted."

Amish
Amish communities practice variations of excommunication known as "shunning". This practice may include isolation from community events or the cessation of all communication.

Mennonites
Mennonite communities use the "ban", separation and correction on baptized members that fall into sin. Separated members must be avoided or "shunned" until they repent and reform. Shunning must be done in the spirit of moderation and christian charity; the aim is not to destroy but to reform the person.

Hutterites
Hutterite communities use a form of excommunication called "the ban" on baptized members that fall into sin repeatedly.

Baptists
For Baptists, excommunication is used as a last resort by denominations and churches for members who do not want to repent of beliefs or behavior at odds with the confession of faith of the community. The vote of community members, however, can restore a person who has been excluded.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) practices excommunication as a penalty for those who commit serious sins, i.e., actions that significantly impair the name or moral influence of the church or pose a threat to other people. In 2020, the church ceased using the term "excommunication" and instead refers to "withdrawal of membership". According to the church leadership General Handbook, the purposes of withdrawing membership or imposing membership restrictions are, (1) to help protect others; (2) to help a person access the redeeming power of Jesus Christ through repentance; and (3) to protect the integrity of the Church. The origins of LDS disciplinary procedures and excommunications are traced to a revelation Joseph Smith dictated on 9 February 1831, later canonized as Doctrine and Covenants, section 42 and codified in the General Handbook.

The LDS Church also practices the lesser sanctions of private counsel and caution and informal and formal membership restrictions. (Informal membership restrictions was formerly known as "probation"; formal membership restrictions was formerly known as "disfellowshipment".)

Formal membership restrictions are used for serious sins that do not rise to the level of membership withdrawal. Formal membership restriction denies some privileges but does not include a loss of church membership. Once formal membership restrictions are in place, persons may not take the sacrament or enter church temples, nor may they offer public prayers or sermons. Such persons may continue to attend most church functions and are allowed to wear temple garments, pay tithes and offerings, and participate in church classes if their conduct is orderly. Formal membership restrictions typically lasts for one year, after which one may be reinstated as a member in good standing.

In the more grievous or recalcitrant cases, withdrawal of membership becomes a disciplinary option. Such an action is generally reserved for what are seen as the most serious sins, including committing serious crimes such as murder, child abuse, and incest; committing adultery; involvement in or teaching of polygamy; involvement in homosexual conduct; apostasy; participation in an abortion; teaching false doctrine; or openly criticizing church leaders. The General Handbook states that formally joining another church constitutes apostasy and is worthy of membership withdrawal; however, merely attending another church does not constitute apostasy.

A withdrawal of membership can occur only after a formal church membership council. Formerly called a "disciplinary council" or a "church court", the councils were renamed to avoid focusing on guilt and instead to emphasize the availability of repentance.

The decision to withdraw the membership of a Melchizedek priesthood holder is generally the province of the leadership of a stake. In such a disciplinary council, the stake presidency and, sometimes in more difficult cases, the stake high council attend. It is possible to appeal a decision of a stake membership council to the church's First Presidency.

For females and for male members not initiated into the Melchizedek priesthood, a ward membership council is held. In such cases, a bishop determines whether withdrawal of membership or a lesser sanction is warranted. He does this in consultation with his two counselors, with the bishop making the final determination after prayer. The decision of a ward membership council can be appealed to the stake president.

The following list of variables serves as a general set of guidelines for when membership withdrawal or lesser action may be warranted, beginning with those more likely to result in severe sanction:

 * 1) Violation of covenants: Covenants are made in conjunction with specific ordinances in the LDS Church. Violated covenants that might result in excommunication are usually those surrounding marriage covenants, temple covenants, and priesthood covenants.
 * 2) Position of trust or authority: The person's position in the church hierarchy factors into the decision. It is considered more serious when a sin is committed by an area seventy; a stake, mission, or temple president; a bishop; a patriarch; or a full-time missionary.
 * 3) Repetition: Repetition of a sin is more serious than a single instance.
 * 4) Magnitude: How often, how many individuals were impacted, and who is aware of the sin factor into the decision.
 * Age, maturity, and experience: Those who are young in age, or immature in their understanding, are typically afforded leniency.
 * 1) Interests of the innocent: How the discipline will impact innocent family members may be considered.
 * 2) Time between transgression and confession: If the sin was committed in the distant past, and there has not been repetition, leniency may be considered.
 * 3) Voluntary confession: If a person voluntarily confesses the sin, leniency is suggested.
 * 4) Evidence of repentance: Sorrow for sin, and demonstrated commitment to repentance, as well as faith in Jesus Christ all play a role in determining the severity of discipline.

Notices of withdrawal of membership may be made public, especially in cases of apostasy, where members could be misled. However, the specific reasons for individual withdrawal of membership are typically kept confidential and are seldom made public by church leadership.

Those who have their membership withdrawn lose the right to partake of the sacrament. Such persons are permitted to attend church meetings but participation is limited: they cannot offer public prayers, preach sermons, and cannot enter temples. Such individuals are also prohibited from wearing or purchasing temple garments and from paying tithes. A person whose membership has been withdrawn may be re-baptized after a waiting period of at least one year and sincere repentance, as judged by a series of interviews with church leaders.

Some critics have charged that LDS Church leaders have used the threat of membership withdrawal to silence or punish church members and researchers who disagree with established policy and doctrine, who study or discuss controversial subjects, or who may be involved in disputes with local, stake leaders or general authorities; see, e.g., Brian Evenson, a former BYU professor and writer whose fiction came under criticism from BYU officials and LDS Leadership. Another notable case of excommunication from the LDS Church was the "September Six", a group of intellectuals and professors, five of whom were excommunicated and the sixth disfellowshipped. However, church policy dictates that local leaders are responsible for membership withdrawal, without influence from church headquarters. The church thus argues that this policy is evidence against any systematic persecution of scholars or dissenters. Data shows per-capita excommunication rates among the LDS Church have varied dramatically over the years, from a low of about 1 in 6,400 members in the early 1900s to one in 640 by the 1970s, an increase which has been speculatively attributed to "informal guidance from above" in enforcing the growing list of possible transgressions added to General Handbook editions over time.

Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses practice a form of excommunication, using the term "disfellowshipping", in cases where a member is believed to have unrepentantly committed one or more of several documented "serious sins".

When a member confesses to, or is accused of, a serious sin, a judicial committee of at least three elders is formed. This committee investigates the case and determines the magnitude of the sin committed. If the person is deemed guilty of a disfellowshipping offense, the committee then decides, on the basis of the person's attitude and "works befitting repentance".

Disfellowshipping is a severing of friendly relationships between all Jehovah's Witnesses and the disfellowshipped person. Interaction with extended family is typically restricted to a minimum, such as presence at the reading of wills and providing essential care for the elderly. Within a household, typical family contact may continue, but without spiritual fellowship such as family Bible study and religious discussions. Parents of disfellowshipped minors living in the family home may continue to attempt to convince the child about the group's teachings. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that this form of discipline encourages the disfellowshipped individual to conform to biblical standards and prevents the person from influencing other members of the congregation.

Along with breaches of the Witnesses' moral code, openly disagreeing with the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses is considered grounds for shunning. These persons are labeled as "apostates" and are described in Watch Tower Society literature as "mentally diseased". Descriptions of "apostates" appearing in the Witnesses literature have been the subject of investigation in the UK to determine if they violate religious hatred laws. Sociologist Andrew Holden claims many Witnesses who would otherwise defect because of disillusionment with the organization and its teachings, remain affiliated out of fear of being shunned and losing contact with friends and family members. Shunning employs what is known as relational aggression in psychological literature. When used by church members and member-spouse parents against excommunicant parents it contains elements of what psychologists call parental alienation. Extreme shunning may cause trauma to the shunned (and to their dependents) similar to what is studied in the psychology of torture.

Disassociation is a form of shunning where a member expresses verbally or in writing that they do not wish to be associated with Jehovah's Witnesses, rather than for having committed any specific 'sin'. Elders may also decide that an individual has disassociated, without any formal statement by the individual, by actions such as accepting a blood transfusion, or for joining another religious or military organization. Individuals who are deemed by the elders to have disassociated are given no right of appeal.

Each year, congregation elders are instructed to consider meeting with disfellowshipped individuals to determine changed circumstances and encourage them to pursue reinstatement. Reinstatement is not automatic after a certain time period, nor is there a minimum duration; disfellowshipped persons may talk to elders at any time but must apply in writing to be considered for reinstatement into the congregation. Elders consider each case individually, and are instructed to ensure "that sufficient time has passed for the disfellowshipped person to prove that his profession of repentance is genuine". A judicial committee meets with the individual to determine their repentance, and if this is established, the person is reinstated into the congregation and may participate with the congregation in their formal ministry (such as house-to-house preaching).

A Witness who has been formally reproved or reinstated cannot be appointed to any special privilege of service for at least one year. Serious sins involving child sex abuse permanently disqualify the sinner from appointment to any congregational privilege of service, regardless of whether the sinner was convicted of any secular crime.

Christadelphians
Similarly to many groups having their origins in the 1830s Restoration Movement, Christadelphians call their form of excommunication "disfellowshipping", though they do not practice "shunning". Disfellowshipping can occur for moral reasons, changing beliefs, or (in some ecclesias) for not attending communion (referred to as "the emblems" or "the breaking of bread").

In such cases, the person involved is usually required to discuss the issues. If they do not conform, the church ('meeting' or 'ecclesia') is recommended by the management committee ("Arranging Brethren") to vote on disfellowshipping the person. These procedures were formulated 1863 onwards by early Christadelphians, and then in 1883 codified by Robert Roberts in A Guide to the Formation and Conduct of Christadelphian Ecclesias (colloquially "The Ecclesial Guide"). However Christadelphians justify and apply their practice not only from this document but also from passages such as the exclusion in 1Co.5 and recovery in 2Co.2.

Christadelphians typically avoid the term "excommunication" which many associate with the Catholic Church; and may feel the word carries implications they do not agree with, such as undue condemnation and punishment, as well as failing to recognise the remedial intention of the measure.

 * Behavioural cases. Many cases regarding moral issues tend to involve relational matters such as marriage outside the faith, divorce and remarriage (which is considered adultery in some circumstances by some ecclesias), or homosexuality. Reinstatement for moral issues is determined by the ecclesia's assessment of whether the individual has "turned away" from (ceased) the course of action considered immoral by the church. This can be complex when dealing with cases of divorce and subsequent remarriage, with different positions adopted by different ecclesias, but generally within the main "Central" grouping, such cases can be accommodated.
 * Doctrinal cases. Changes of belief on what Christadelphians call "first principle" doctrines are difficult to accommodate unless the individual agrees to not teach or spread them, since the body has a documented Statement of Faith which informally serves as a basis of ecclesial membership and interecclesial fellowship. Those who are disfellowshipped for reasons of differing belief rarely return, because they are expected to conform to an understanding with which they do not agree. Holding differing beliefs on fundamental matters is considered as error and apostasy, which can limit a person's salvation. However, in practice disfellowship for doctrinal reasons is now unusual.

In the case of adultery and divorce, the passage of time usually means a member can be restored if he or she wants to be. In the case of ongoing behaviour, cohabitation, homosexual activity, then the terms of the suspension have not been met.

The mechanics of "refellowship" follow the reverse of the original process; the individual makes an application to the "ecclesia", and the "Arranging Brethren" give a recommendation to the members who vote. If the "Arranging Brethren" judge that a vote may divide the ecclesia, or personally upset some members, they may seek to find a third party ecclesia which is willing to "refellowship" the member instead. According to the Ecclesial Guide a third party ecclesia may also take the initiative to "refellowship" another meeting's member. However this cannot be done unilaterally, as this would constitute heteronomy over the autonomy of the original ecclesia's members.

Society of Friends (Quakers)
Among many of the Society of Friends groups (Quakers) one is read out of meeting for behaviour inconsistent with the sense of the meeting. In Britain a meeting may record a minute of disunity. However it is the responsibility of each meeting, quarterly meeting, and yearly meeting, to act with respect to their own members. For example, during the Vietnam War many Friends were concerned about Friend Richard Nixon's position on war which seemed at odds with their beliefs; however, it was the responsibility of Nixon's own meeting, the East Whittier Meeting of Whittier, California, to act if indeed that meeting felt the leading. They did not.

In the 17th century, before the founding of abolitionist societies, Friends who too forcefully tried to convince their coreligionists of the evils of slavery were read out of meeting. Benjamin Lay was read out of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting for this. During the American Revolution over 400 Friends were read out of meeting for their military participation or support.

Iglesia ni Cristo
Iglesia ni Cristo practices expulsion of members it deems to have gravely sinned or gone against the teachings and doctrines of the church. The Sanggunian, the church's council, has jurisdiction to expel members from the church. People expelled by the church are referred to as dismissed (tiwalag). Offenses that may be grounds for expulsion include marrying a non-member, having a romantic relationship with a non-member, becoming pregnant out of wedlock (unless the couple marries before the child is born) and most especially disagreeing with the church administration. An expelled member can be re-admitted by pledging obedience to the church administration and its rules, values and teachings.

Unitarian Universalism
Unitarian Universalism, being a liberal religious group and a congregational denomination, has a wide diversity of opinions and sentiments. Nonetheless, Unitarian Universalists have had to deal with disruptive individuals. Congregations which had no policies on disruptive individuals have sometimes found themselves having to create such policies, up to (and including) expulsion.

By the late 1990s, several churches were using the West Shore UU Church's policy as a model. If someone is threatening, disruptive, or distracting from the appeal of the church to its membership, a church using this model has three recommended levels of response to the offending individual. While the first level involves dialogue between a committee or clergy member and the offender, the second and third levels involve expulsion, either from the church itself or a church activity.

Buddhism
There is no direct equivalent to excommunication in Buddhism. However, in the Theravadan monastic community monks can be expelled from monasteries for heresy or other acts. In addition, monks have four vows, called the four defeats, which are abstaining from sexual intercourse, stealing, murder, and lying about spiritual gains (e.g., having special power or ability to perform miracles). If any one is broken, the monk is automatically a layman again and can never become a monk in his or her current life.

Most Japanese Buddhist sects hold ecclesiastical authority over their followers and have their own rules for expelling members of the sangha, lay or bishopric. The lay Japanese Buddhist organization Sōka Gakkai was expelled from the Nichiren Shoshu sect in 1991.

Hinduism
Hinduism is too diverse to be seen as a homogenous and monolithic religion. It is often described an unorganised and syncretist religion with a conspicuous absence of any listed doctrines. There are multiple religious institutions (equivalent to Christian ecclesia) within Hinduism that teach slight variations of Dharma and Karma, hence Hinduism has no concept of excommunication and hence no Hindu may be ousted from the Hindu religion, though a person may easily lose caste status through gramanya for a very wide variety of infringements of caste prohibitions. This may or may not be recoverable. However, some of the modern organised sects within Hinduism may practice something equivalent to excommunication today, by ousting a person from their own sect.

In medieval and early-modern times (and sometimes even now) in South Asia, excommunication from one's caste (jāti or varna) used to be practiced (by the caste-councils) and was often with serious consequences, such as abasement of the person's caste status and even throwing him into the sphere of the untouchables or bhangi. In the 19th century, a Hindu faced excommunication for going abroad, since it was presumed he/she would be forced to break caste restrictions and, as a result, become polluted.

After excommunication, it would depend upon the caste-council whether they would accept any form of repentance (ritual or otherwise) or not. Such current examples of excommunication in Hinduism are often more political or social rather than religious, for example the excommunication of lower castes for refusing to work as scavengers in Tamil Nadu.

Another example of caste-related violence and discrimination occurred in the case of the Gupti Ismailis from the Hindu Kachhiya caste. Interestingly, Hindu members of this caste began prayers with the inclusion of the mantra “OM, by the command, in the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful” (om farmānjī bi’smi’l-lāh al-raḥmān al-raḥīm), but never found it objectionable or Islamic. However, in the early 1930s, after some conflict with caste members due to their profession of allegiance to the Ismaili Imam, this group, known as the Guptis, were excommunicated from the caste completely as they appeared to be breaking caste solidarity. This was also significant for the Gupti community as, for the first time, they could be identified as a distinct group based on their religious persuasion. Some of the more daring Guptis also abandoned their former practice of pious circumspection (taqiyya) as Hindus, claiming that since they had been excommunicated, the caste no longer had any jurisdiction over their actions.

An earlier example of excommunication in Hinduism is that of Shastri Yagnapurushdas, who voluntarily left and was later expelled from the Vadtal Gadi of the Swaminarayan Sampraday by the then Vadtal acharya in 1906. He went on to form his own institution, Bochasanwasi Swaminarayan Sanstha or BSS (now BAPS) claiming Gunatitanand Swami was the rightful spiritual successor to Swaminarayan.

Sikhism
Patit is a Sikh term which is sometimes translated into English as apostate. It refers to a person who initiated into Sikh religion, but violated the religious rules of Sikhi. The Sikh Rehat Maryada (Code of Conduct), Section Six states the transgressions which cause a person to become a patit:

 * Dishonouring the hair;
 * Eating the meat of an animal slaughtered the Kutha way;
 * Cohabiting with a person other than one's spouse;
 * Using an intoxicant (such as smoking, drinking alcohol, using recreational drugs or tobacco)

These four kurahit causes of apostasy were first listed by Guru Gobind Singh in his 52 hukams (commandments).

Islam
Since there has been no universally and univocally recognized religious authority among the many Islamic denominations that have emerged throughout history, papal excommunication has no exact equivalent in Islam, at least insofar as the attitudes of any conflicting religious authorities with regard to an individual or another sect are judged to be coordinate, not subordinate to one another. Nonetheless, condemning heterodoxy and punishing heretics through shunning and ostracism is comparable with the practice in non-Catholic Christian faiths.

Islamic theologians commonly employ two terms when describing measurements to be taken against schismatics and heresy: هَجْر (hajr, "abandoning") and تَكْفِير (takfīr, "making or declaring to be a nonbeliever"). The former (هَجْر, hajr) signifies the act of abandoning somewhere (such as migration, as in the Islamic prophet's journey out of Mecca, which is called al-Hijra ("the (e)migration")) or someone (used in the Qur'an in the case of disciplining a dissonant or disobedient wife or avoiding a harmful person ). The latter (تَكْفِير, takfīr) means a definitive declaration that denounces a person as a kāfir ("infidel"). However, because such a charge would entail serious consequences for the accused, who would then be deemed to be a مُرْتَدّ (murtadd, "a backslider; an apostate), less extreme denunciations, such as an accusation of بِدْعَة (bidʽah, "[deviant] innovation; heresy") followed by shunning and excommunication have historically preponderated over apostasy trials.

Takfīr has often been practiced through the courts. More recently, cases have taken place where individuals have been considered nonbelievers. These decisions followed lawsuits against individuals, mainly in response to their writings that some have viewed as anti-Islamic. The most famous cases are of Salman Rushdie, Nasr Abu Zayd, Nawal El-Saadawi, and of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. The repercussions of such cases have included divorce, since under traditional interpretations of Islamic law, Muslim women are not permitted to marry non-Muslim men.

Judaism
Herem is the highest ecclesiastical censure in Judaism. It is the total exclusion of a person from the Jewish community. Except for cases in the Charedi community, cherem stopped existing after The Enlightenment, when local Jewish communities lost their political autonomy, and Jews were integrated into the gentile nations in which they lived. A siruv order, equivalent to a contempt of court, issued by a Rabbinical court may also limit religious participation.

Rabbinical conferences of movements do expel members from time to time,  but sometimes choose the lesser penalty of censuring the offending rabbi. Between 2010 and 2015, the Reform Jewish Central Conference of American Rabbis expelled six rabbis, the Orthodox Jewish Rabbinical Council of America expelled three, and the Conservative Jewish Rabbinical Assembly expelled one, suspended three, and caused one to resign without eligibility for reinstatement. While the CCAR and RCA were relatively shy about their reasons for expelling rabbis, the RA was more open about its reasons for kicking rabbis out. Reasons for expulsion from the three conferences include sexual misconduct, failure to comply with ethics investigations, setting up conversion groups without the conference's approval, stealing money from congregations, other financial misconduct, and getting arrested.

Judaism, like Unitarian Universalism, tends towards congregationalism, and so decisions to exclude from a community of worship often depend on the congregation. Congregational bylaws sometimes enable the board of a synagogue to ask individuals to leave or not to enter.

title: Excommunication


text:
Electrochemical cell

An electrochemical cell is a device that generates electrical energy from chemical reactions. Electrical energy can also be applied to these cells to cause chemical reactions to occur. Electrochemical cells that generate an electric current are called voltaic or galvanic cells and those that generate chemical reactions, via electrolysis for example, are called electrolytic cells.

Both galvanic and electrolytic cells can be thought of as having two half-cells: consisting of separate oxidation and reduction reactions.

When one or more electrochemical cells are connected in parallel or series they make a battery. Primary cells are single use batteries.

Galvanic cell
A galvanic cell (voltaic cell), named after Luigi Galvani (Alessandro Volta), is an electrochemical cell that generates electrical energy from spontaneous redox reactions. A wire connects two different metals (ex. Zinc and Copper). Each metal is in a separate solution; often the aqueous sulphate or nitrate forms of the metal, however more generally metal salts and water which conduct current. A salt bridge or porous membrane connects the two solutions, keeping electric neutrality and the avoidance of charge accumulation. The metal's differences in oxidation/reduction potential drive the reaction until equilibrium.

Key features:

 * spontaneous reaction
 * generates electric current
 * current flows through a wire, and ions flow through a salt bridge
 * anode (negative), cathode (positive)

Half cells
Galvanic cells consists of two half-cells. Each half-cell consists of an electrode and an electrolyte (both half-cells may use the same or different electrolytes).

The chemical reactions in the cell involve the electrolyte, electrodes, and/or an external substance (fuel cells may use hydrogen gas as a reactant). In a full electrochemical cell, species from one half-cell lose electrons (oxidation) to their electrode while species from the other half-cell gain electrons (reduction) from their electrode.

A salt bridge (e.g., filter paper soaked in KNO3, NaCl, or some other electrolyte) is used to ionically connect two half-cells with different electrolytes, but it prevents the solutions from mixing and unwanted side reactions. An alternative to a salt bridge is to allow direct contact (and mixing) between the two half-cells, for example in simple electrolysis of water.

As electrons flow from one half-cell to the other through an external circuit, a difference in charge is established. If no ionic contact were provided, this charge difference would quickly prevent the further flow of electrons. A salt bridge allows the flow of negative or positive ions to maintain a steady-state charge distribution between the oxidation and reduction vessels, while keeping the contents otherwise separate. Other devices for achieving separation of solutions are porous pots and gelled solutions. A porous pot is used in the Bunsen cell.

Equilibrium reaction
Each half-cell has a characteristic voltage (depending on the metal and its characteristic reduction potential). Each reaction is undergoing an equilibrium reaction between different oxidation states of the ions: when equilibrium is reached, the cell cannot provide further voltage. In the half-cell performing oxidation, the closer the equilibrium lies to the ion/atom with the more positive oxidation state the more potential this reaction will provide. Likewise, in the reduction reaction, the closer the equilibrium lies to the ion/atom with the more negative oxidation state the higher the potential.

Cell potential
The cell potential can be predicted through the use of electrode potentials (the voltages of each half-cell). These half-cell potentials are defined relative to the assignment of 0 volts to the standard hydrogen electrode (SHE). (See table of standard electrode potentials). The difference in voltage between electrode potentials gives a prediction for the potential measured. When calculating the difference in voltage, one must first rewrite the half-cell reaction equations to obtain a balanced oxidation-reduction equation.

 * 1) Reverse the reduction reaction with the smallest potential (to create an oxidation reaction/overall positive cell potential)
 * 2) Half-reactions must be multiplied by integers to achieve electron balance.

Cell potentials have a possible range of roughly zero to 6 volts. Cells using water-based electrolytes are usually limited to cell potentials less than about 2.5 volts due to high reactivity of the powerful oxidizing and reducing agents with water which is needed to produce a higher voltage. Higher cell potentials are possible with cells using other solvents instead of water. For instance, lithium cells with a voltage of 3 volts are commonly available.

The cell potential depends on the concentration of the reactants, as well as their type. As the cell is discharged, the concentration of the reactants decreases and the cell potential also decreases.

Electrolytic cell
An electrolytic cell is an electrochemical cell in which applied electrical energy drives a non-spontaneous redox reaction. They are often used to decompose chemical compounds, in a process called electrolysis. (The Greek word "lysis" (λύσις) means "loosing" or "setting free".)

Important examples of electrolysis are the decomposition of water into hydrogen and oxygen, and of bauxite into aluminium and other chemicals. Electroplating (e.g. of Copper, Silver, Nickel or Chromium) is done using an electrolytic cell. Electrolysis is a technique that uses a direct electric current (DC).

The components of an electrolytic cell are:

 * an electrolyte: usually a solution of water or other solvents in which ions are dissolved. Molten salts such as sodium chloride are also electrolytes.
 * two electrodes (a cathode and an anode) which are electrical terminals consisting of a suitable substance at which oxidation or reduction can take place, and maintained at two different electric potentials.

When driven by an external voltage (potential difference) applied to the electrodes, the ions in the electrolyte are attracted to the electrode with the opposite potential, where charge-transferring (also called faradaic or redox) reactions can take place. Only with a sufficient external voltage can an electrolytic cell decompose a normally stable, or inert chemical compound in the solution. Thus the electrical energy provided produces a chemical reaction which would not occur spontaneously otherwise.

Key features:

 * non-spontaneous reaction
 * generates current
 * current flows through a wire, and ions flow through salt bridge
 * anode (positive), cathode (negative)

Primary cell

A primary cell produces current by irreversible chemical reactions (ex. small disposable batteries) and is not rechargeable.

They are used for their portability, low cost, and short lifetime.

Primary cells are made in a range of standard sizes to power small household appliances such as flashlights and portable radios.

As chemical reactions proceed in a primary cell, the battery uses up the chemicals that generate the power; when they are gone, the battery stops producing electricity.

Primary batteries make up about 90% of the $50 billion battery market, but secondary batteries have been gaining market share. About 15 billion primary batteries are thrown away worldwide every year, virtually all ending up in landfills. Due to the toxic heavy metals and strong acids or alkalis they contain, batteries are hazardous waste. Most municipalities classify them as such and require separate disposal. The energy needed to manufacture a battery is about 50 times greater than the energy it contains. Due to their high pollutant content compared to their small energy content, the primary battery is considered a wasteful, environmentally unfriendly technology. Mainly due to the increasing sales of wireless devices and cordless tools, which cannot be economically powered by primary batteries and come with integral rechargeable batteries, the secondary battery industry has high growth and has slowly been replacing the primary battery in high end products.

Secondary cell

A secondary cell produces current by reversible chemical reactions (ex. lead-acid battery car battery) and is rechargeable.

Lead-acid batteries are used in an automobile to start an engine and to operate the car's electrical accessories when the engine is not running. The alternator, once the car is running, recharges the battery.

It can perform as a galvanic cell and an electrolytic cell. It is a convenient way to store electricity: when current flows one way, the levels of one or more chemicals build up (charging); while it is discharging, they reduce and the resulting electromotive force can do work.

They are used for their high voltage, low costs, reliability, and long lifetime.

Fuel cell
A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that reacts hydrogen fuel with oxygen or another oxidizing agent, to convert chemical energy to electricity.

Fuel cells are different from batteries in requiring a continuous source of fuel and oxygen (usually from air) to sustain the chemical reaction, whereas in a battery the chemical energy comes from chemicals already present in the battery.

Fuel cells can produce electricity continuously for as long as fuel and oxygen are supplied.

They are used for primary and backup power for commercial, industrial and residential buildings and in remote or inaccessible areas. They are also used to power fuel cell vehicles, including forklifts, automobiles, buses, boats, motorcycles and submarines.

Fuel cells are classified by the type of electrolyte they use and by the difference in startup time, which ranges from 1 second for proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEM fuel cells, or PEMFC) to 10 minutes for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC).

There are many types of fuel cells, but they all consist of:

 * anode: At the anode a catalyst causes the fuel to undergo oxidation reactions that generate protons (positively charged hydrogen ions) and electrons. The protons flow from the anode to the cathode through the electrolyte after the reaction. At the same time, electrons are drawn from the anode to the cathode through an external circuit, producing direct current electricity.
 * cathode: At the cathode, another catalyst causes hydrogen ions, electrons, and oxygen to react, forming water.
 * electrolyte: Allows positively charged hydrogen ions (protons) to move between the two sides of the fuel cell.

A related technology are flow batteries, in which the fuel can be regenerated by recharging. Individual fuel cells produce relatively small electrical potentials, about 0.7 volts, so cells are "stacked", or placed in series, to create sufficient voltage to meet an application's requirements. In addition to electricity, fuel cells produce water, heat and, depending on the fuel source, very small amounts of nitrogen dioxide and other emissions. The energy efficiency of a fuel cell is generally between 40 and 60%; however, if waste heat is captured in a cogeneration scheme, efficiencies up to 85% can be obtained.

In 2022, the global fuel cell market was estimated to be $6.3 billion, and is expected to increase by 19.9% by 2030. Many countries are attempting to enter the market by setting renewable energy GW goals.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Electrochemical cell


text:
Ecdysis

Ecdysis is the moulting of the cuticle in many invertebrates of the clade Ecdysozoa. Since the cuticle of these animals typically forms a largely inelastic exoskeleton, it is shed during growth and a new, larger covering is formed. The remnants of the old, empty exoskeleton are called exuviae.

After moulting, an arthropod is described as teneral, a callow; it is "fresh", pale and soft-bodied. Within one or two hours, the cuticle hardens and darkens following a tanning process analogous to the production of leather. During this short phase the animal expands, since growth is otherwise constrained by the rigidity of the exoskeleton. Growth of the limbs and other parts normally covered by the hard exoskeleton is achieved by transfer of body fluids from soft parts before the new skin hardens. A spider with a small abdomen may be undernourished but more probably has recently undergone ecdysis. Some arthropods, especially large insects with tracheal respiration, expand their new exoskeleton by swallowing or otherwise taking in air. The maturation of the structure and colouration of the new exoskeleton might take days or weeks in a long-lived insect; this can make it difficult to identify an individual if it has recently undergone ecdysis.

Ecdysis allows damaged tissue and missing limbs to be regenerated or substantially re-formed. Complete regeneration may require a series of moults, the stump becoming a little larger with each moult until the limb is a normal, or near normal, size.

Etymology
The term ecdysis comes from Ancient Greek ἐκδύω (ekduo) 'to take off, strip off'.

Process
In preparation for ecdysis, the arthropod becomes inactive for a period of time, undergoing apolysis or separation of the old exoskeleton from the underlying epidermal cells. For most organisms, the resting period is a stage of preparation during which the secretion of fluid from the moulting glands of the epidermal layer and the loosening of the underpart of the cuticle occurs. Once the old cuticle has separated from the epidermis, a digesting fluid is secreted into the space between them. However, this fluid remains inactive until the upper part of the new cuticle has been formed. Then, by crawling movements, the organism pushes forward in the old integumentary shell, which splits down the back allowing the animal to emerge. Often, this initial crack is caused by a combination of movement and increase in pressure of hemolymph within the body, forcing an expansion across its exoskeleton, leading to an eventual crack that allows for certain organisms such as spiders to extricate themselves. While the old cuticle is being digested, the new layer is secreted. All cuticular structures are shed at ecdysis, including the inner parts of the exoskeleton, which includes terminal linings of the alimentary tract and of the tracheae if they are present.

Insects
Each stage of development between moults for insects in the taxon Endopterygota is called an instar, or stadium, and each stage between moults of insects in the Exopterygota is called a nymph: there may be up to 15 nymphal stages. Endopterygota tend to have only four or five instars. Endopterygotes have more alternatives to moulting, such as expansion of the cuticle and collapse of air sacs to allow growth of internal organs.

The process of moulting in insects begins with the separation of the cuticle from the underlying epidermal cells (apolysis) and ends with the shedding of the old cuticle (ecdysis). In many species it is initiated by an increase in the hormone ecdysone. This hormone causes:
 * apolysis – the separation of the cuticle from the epidermis
 * secretion of new cuticle materials beneath the old
 * degradation of the old cuticle

After apolysis the insect is known as a pharate. Moulting fluid is then secreted into the exuvial space between the old cuticle and the epidermis, this contains inactive enzymes which are activated only after the new epicuticle is secreted. This prevents the new procuticle from getting digested as it is laid down. The lower regions of the old cuticle, the endocuticle and mesocuticle, are then digested by the enzymes and subsequently absorbed. The exocuticle and epicuticle resist digestion and are hence shed at ecdysis.

Spiders

Spiders generally change their skin for the first time while still inside the egg sac, and the spiderling that emerges broadly resembles the adult. The number of moults varies, both between species and sexes, but generally will be between five times and nine times before the spider reaches maturity. Not surprisingly, since males are generally smaller than females, the males of many species mature faster and do not undergo ecdysis as many times as the females before maturing. Members of the Mygalomorphae are very long-lived, sometimes 20 years or more; they moult annually even after they mature.

Spiders stop feeding at some time before moulting, usually for several days. The physiological processes of releasing the old exoskeleton from the tissues beneath typically cause various colour changes, such as darkening. If the old exoskeleton is not too thick it may be possible to see new structures, such as setae, from the outside. However, contact between the nerves and the old exoskeleton is maintained until a very late stage in the process.

The new, teneral exoskeleton has to accommodate a larger frame than the previous instar, while the spider has had to fit into the previous exoskeleton until it has been shed. This means the spider does not fill out the new exoskeleton completely, so it commonly appears somewhat wrinkled.

Most species of spiders hang from silk during the entire process, either dangling from a drop line, or fastening their claws into webbed fibres attached to a suitable base. The discarded, dried exoskeleton typically remains hanging where it was abandoned once the spider has left.

To open the old exoskeleton, the spider generally contracts its abdomen (opisthosoma) to supply enough fluid to pump into the prosoma with sufficient pressure to crack it open along its lines of weakness. The carapace lifts off from the front, like a helmet, as its surrounding skin ruptures, but it remains attached at the back. Now the spider works its limbs free and typically winds up dangling by a new thread of silk attached to its own exuviae, which in turn hang from the original silk attachment.

At this point the spider is a callow; it is teneral and vulnerable. As it dangles, its exoskeleton hardens and takes shape. The process may take minutes in small spiders, or some hours in the larger Mygalomorphs. Some spiders, such as some Synema species, members of the Thomisidae (crab spiders), mate while the female is still callow, during which time she is unable to eat the male.

Eurypterids
Eurypterids are a group of chelicerates that became extinct in the Late Permian. They underwent ecdysis similarly to extant chelicerates, and most fossils are thought to be of exuviae, rather than cadavers.

title: Ecdysis


text:
Ebor, New South Wales

Ebor is a village on Waterfall Way on the Northern Tablelands in New South Wales, Australia. It is situated about 80 km east of Armidale and about a third of the way between Armidale and the coast. Dorrigo to the east is 46 km away with the Coffs Coast 55 km away along Waterfall Way. In the, Ebor's zone had a population of 149.

History
The village is situated in the traditional lands of the Gumbaynggirr peoples.

Ebor shares its name with a nearby set of waterfalls, Ebor Falls, which is a local tourist attraction. Gumbaynggirr people traditionally called the falls Martiam (meaning 'the great falls').

The village's wooden Catholic church burned down in October 1946.

At the, Ebor had a population of 149 people.

Borderlands
Although "The Heart of Waterfall Way", Ebor is on the eastern edge of Armidale Regional Council, and close to the border of Clarence Valley Council and Bellingen Shire Council. Until the amalgamation of Guyra and Armidale councils, one side of Ebor was under Armidale council, and the other under Guyra shire. Likewise, Ebor is close to three state electoral districts (Northern Tablelands, Oxley and Clarence) and three federal electoral boundaries (New England, Cowper and Page).

Facilities
Amenities in the area include a cafe, a combined post office, fuel station and general store, a pub/motel with camp ground, and a NSW DEC primary school. The local sports ground is home of the Ebor Campdraft.

There are also Rural Fire Service and National Parks and Wildlife Service depots in the area, but no police or ambulance services based in Ebor. The nearest hospital and 24h emergency department is in Dorrigo.

Features
Due to its central position on Waterfall Way, Ebor offers easy access for residents and tourists to Guy Fawkes River National Park, Cathedral Rock National Park, Cunnawarra National Park, New England National Park, part of Oxley Wild Rivers National Park, Nymboi-Binderay National Park and Mount Hyland Nature Reserve.

The natural environment of the surrounding district includes several areas which have been cleared for pastoralism and forestry. Nonetheless, the national parks around Ebor have been described as a bush walking "Mecca". The main tourist attraction is the twin Ebor Falls.

In 1930 Sydney Smith Jr. wrote that: "During a recent visit to Ebor I was much impressed with the possibilities of this part of the State as a tourist resort... Around Ebor and Guy Fawkes can be seen some of the most magnificent scenery in this State if not Australia. ...The two falls are scenes of beauty, and in winter time are sometimes frozen, making a beautiful spectacle as they hang in huge icicles. The water from the Ebor eventually finds an outlet in the Clarence River. ...The view, ...as regards expansiveness, ruggedness, and beauty, must compare more than favourably with views of a similar nature in any part of the Commonwealth. It reminded me of the Valley of a Thousand Hills, outside Durban, in South Africa".

In 1976, local historian Eric Fahey also wrote: "I believe the future of Dorrigo will depend largely on tourism. The area has a lot to offer, both in peerless scenery and because of the native fauna which can be seen in large numbers in their natural state."

Wagyu beef specialists Stone Axe have a large holding, "Glen Alvie", on the northern boundary of the village. Stone Axe also acquired "Alfreda" in the nearby locality of Wongwibinda.

Black truffles (tuber melanosporum) are grown at the Guy Fawkes Truffle Company outside of Ebor on the Guyra Rd.

Trout are another local product. The Dutton Trout Hatchery on Point Lookout Road was established in 1950 and is one of the largest hatcheries in the state. Visitors can see the various stages of trout development prior to their release in the mountain streams. The release of trout into local streams is believed to have led to decline of the endangered Tusked frog.

There are two short walks close to the village. One takes walkers through the 40 ha recreation reserve. This walk follows the Guy Fawkes River upstream for about half of the walk. Some bird life can be seen. The second walk is accessed by crossing the Guy Fawkes River bridge, and following the pedestrian path that winds downstream under the bridge. This path follows the Guy Fawkes River north and meets the national park's Upper and Lower Falls paths. Wallabies, kangaroos, bird life and fire-flies can be seen depending on the season. Platypus have also been sighted in August in the pool above the falls.

The Bicentennial National Trail (BNT) passes through Ebor, which sits on the boundary of sections 7 and 8 of the BNT.

The Ebor Falls area is sometimes used for rock climbing, and is described as "holding a rather special place in the History of New England climbing".

Speeding and traffic
Ebor has a noted problem with speeding vehicles. Both passenger cars and heavy vehicles regularly exceed the posted speed limit of 50 km/h. Traffic noise is also a problem. Waterfall Way has an entry on the Dangerous Roads website.

Post office
Ebor's Post Office opened on 2 March 1868, closed in 1869 and reopened in 1910. It is currently located at the Ebor petrol station/store having moved from Fusspots Cafe.

Cultural heritage
Ebor has a number of cultural heritage sites, including several Aboriginal meeting places, and massacre sites.

"Gwenda Gardens" is an abandoned homestead on the Guyra-Ebor Road.

Other sites include:
 * Waterfall Way: Yooroonah Tank Barrier
 * Former Cottage Hospital at 5 Parke Street
 * Ebor Cemetery off Waterfall Way
 * Deconsecrated Union Church at 11608 Waterfall Way
 * Former Ebor Soldiers Hall at 11626 Waterfall Way
 * Former Australian Bank of Commerce (formerly City Bank of Sydney) at 27 Ebor Street
 * Homestead, “Milamba” (including original Guy Fawkes Post Office and sheep dip) at 7122 Grafton Road
 * House, “Kotupna” at 7314 Grafton Road
 * Cement weir at 337 Point Lookout Road

Climate
The village of Ebor is at high altitude 1300 m by Australian standards. It has cold winters with frequent overnight frost and occasional light snow falls. The average rain fall is about 1300 mm.

title: Ebor, New South Wales


text:
Ancient history of Afghanistan

The ancient history of Afghanistan, also referred to as the pre-Islamic period of Afghanistan, dates back to the Helmand Civilization around 3300–2350 BCE and the Oxus Civilization around 2400–1950 BCE. Archaeological exploration began in Afghanistan in earnest after World War II and proceeded until the late 1970s during the Soviet–Afghan War. Archaeologists and historians suggest that humans were living in Afghanistan at least 50,000 years ago, and that farming communities of the region were among the earliest in the world. Urbanized culture has existed in the land from between 3000 and 2000 BC. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron ages have been found inside Afghanistan.

Inhabited by Iranian peoples and controlled by the Medes until c. 500 BCE when Darius the Great (Darius I) marched with his Persian army to make it part of the Achaemenid Empire. In 330 BC, Alexander the Great of Macedonia invaded the land after defeating Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela. Much of Afghanistan became part of the Seleucid Empire followed by the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. Seleucus I Nicator was defeated by Chandragupta Maurya and gave his daughter in peace treaty. The land was inhabited by various tribes and ruled by many different kingdoms for the next two millenniums. Before the Arab arrival of Islam in the 7th century, there were a number of religions practiced in modern day Afghanistan, including Zoroastrianism, Ancient Iranian religions, Buddhism and Hinduism. The Kafiristan (present-day Nuristan) region, in the Hindu Kush mountain range, was not converted until the 19th century.

The Stone Age
Louis Dupree, the University of Pennsylvania, the Smithsonian Institution and others suggest that humans were living in Afghanistan at least 50,000 years ago, and that farming communities of the region were among the earliest in the world. "Archaeologists have found evidence of human habitation in Afghanistan from as far back as 50,000 BC. The artifacts indicate that the indigenous people were small farmers and herdsmen, as they are today, very probably grouped into tribes, with small local kingdoms rising and falling through the ages."

The Bronze Age
Archaeological finds indicate the possible beginnings of the Bronze Age in Afghanistan, which would ultimately spread throughout the ancient world. It is also believed that the region had early trade contacts with Mesopotamia.

Helmand Civilization (c. 3300–2350 BCE)
The Helmand Civilization was a Bronze Age culture that flourished mainly in the middle and lower valley of the Helmand River, in southern Afghanistan (Kandahar, Helmand and Nimruz provinces) and eastern Iran (Sistan and Baluchestan Province), predominantly in the third millennium BCE.

Oxus Civilization (c. 2400–1950 BCE)

The Oxus Civilization was a Middle Bronze Age civilization of southern Central Asia, also known as the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC). The civilization's urban phase or Integration Era, was dated in 2010 by Sandro Salvatori to c. 2400–1950 BC.

The inhabitants of the Oxus Civilization were sedentary people who practised irrigation farming of wheat and barley. With their impressive material culture including monumental architecture, bronze tools, ceramics, and jewellery of semiprecious stones, the complex exhibits many of the hallmarks of civilization. The complex can be compared to proto-urban settlements in the Helmand basin at Mundigak in western Afghanistan and Shahr-e Sukhteh in eastern Iran.

Aryan Expansion

The Avesta was composed in Ariana, the earliest name of Afghanistan in the first half of the second millennium BCE (c. 2000-1500 BCE). The five Old Avestan Gathas (Gāthās), “songs,” are part of a collection of liturgical texts written in Old Avestan and not the later edition known as "New Avestan." Neither Old Avestan nor New Avestan mention the Medes who are known to have ruled Afghanistan starting around 700 BC. This suggests an early time-frame for the Avesta that has yet to be exactly determined as most academics believe it was written over the course of centuries if not millennia. Much of the archaeological data comes from the Oxus Civilization that played a key role in early Iranian or Aryanic civilization in Afghanistan.

Zoroastrianism spread to become one of the world's most influential religions and became the main faith of the old Aryan people for centuries. Dominated by Iranians, Zoroastrianism became the official religion upon the Iranian Plateau until the defeat of the Sassanian ruler Yazdegerd III c. 2,000 years after the founding of the Iranian religion.

The Indus Valley Civilization had a trading post in Shortugai and material in part of ceramic figurines of snakes, humped bulls, and other items in Mundigak. Indic languages are spoken in much of the Indian subcontinent. According to recent studies, the Oxus Civilization was not a primary contributor to Indo-Aryan genetics.

Medes Era (680–550 BCE)

The Medes, an Iranian people, arrived sometime around the 700s BCE and came to dominate most of ancient Afghanistan. They were an early tribe that forged the first empire on the present Iranian plateau and sister-nations with the Persians whom they initially dominated in the province of Fars to the south. Median control of parts of far off Afghanistan would last until Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Persian Empire.

Achaemenid Era (550 BC–331 BCE)

In what is today southern Iran, the Persians emerged to challenge Median supremacy on the Iranian plateau. By 550 BC, the Persians had replaced Median rule with their own dominion and even began to expand past previous Median imperial borders.

Balkh had a special position in old Afghanistan, being the capital of a vice-kingdom. By the 4th century BC, Persian control of outlying areas and the internal cohesion of the empire had become somewhat tenuous. Although distant provinces like Balkh had often been restless under Achaemenid rule, Bactrian troops from Balkh fought in the decisive Battle of Gaugamela in 330 BCE against the advancing armies of the Ancient Macedonians.

Macedonian Invasion & Seleucid Empire (330–250 BCE)

The Achaemenids were decisively defeated by Alexander and retreated from his advancing army of Greco-Macedonians and their allies. Darius III, the last Achaemenid ruler, tried to flee to Balkh but was assassinated by a subordinate lord, the Bactrian-born Bessus, who proclaimed himself the new ruler of Persia as Artaxerxes (V). Bessus was unable to mount a successful resistance to the growing military might of Alexander's army so he fled to his native Balkh, where he attempted to rally local tribes to his side but was instead turned over to Alexander who proceeded to have him tortured and executed for having committed regicide.

Moving thousands of kilometers eastward from recently subdued Persia, the Macedonian leader Alexander the Great, encountered fierce resistance from the local tribes of Aria, Drangiana, Arachosia (South and Eastern Afghanistan, North-West Pakistan) and Balkh (North and Central Afghanistan). One of the fiercest battles that he faced was in Herat. One of his top commanding officers was killed by the rebels and he had to go there himself. He couldn't defeat them in time and he ended up burning down the forest to finish the rebellion. Upon Alexander's death at the age of 32 in 323 BC, his empire, which had never been politically consolidated, broke apart as his companions began to divide it amongst themselves.

Alexander's cavalry commander, Seleucus, took nominal control of the eastern lands and founded the Seleucid dynasty. The majority of Macedonian soldiers of Alexander the Great wanted to leave the east and return home to Greece. Later, Seleucus sought to guard his eastern frontier and moved Ionian Greeks to many local groups) to Balkh in the 3rd century BC.

Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (c. 250–150 BCE)

In the middle of the 3rd century BC, an independent, Hellenistic state was declared in Bactria and eventually the control of the Seleucids and Mauryans was overthrown in western and southern Afghanistan. Graeco-Bactrian rule spread until it included a large territory which stretched from Turkmenistan in the west to the Punjab in India in the east by about 170 BC. Greek rule was eventually defeated by continual conflict with Iranian nomadic tribes (first the Scythians-Sakas, then the Tocharians, also known as the Yuezhi) but also the Parthians in the middle of the 2nd century BC.

Parthian & Kushan Empire (150 BC–300 CE)
In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, the Parthians, a nomadic Iranian-speaking group, arrived in Western Asia. While they made large inroads into the modern-day territory of Afghanistan, about 100 years later another Iranian-speaking group from the north—called the Yuezhi by the Chinese—entered the region of Afghanistan and established an empire lasting almost four centuries, which would dominate most of the Afghanistan region.

Kushans - one of the five aristocratic Iranian     tribes Yuezhi,    which created the Kushan Kingdom. Ethnically, they are believed to be related to the Tokhars and Bactrians. The Kushan Empire spread from the Kabul River valley to defeat other Central Asian tribes that had previously conquered parts of the northern central Iranian Plateau once ruled by the Parthians. By the middle of the 1st century BC, the Kushans' base of control became Afghanistan and their empire spanned from the north of the Pamir mountains to the Ganges river valley in India. During rule of Kanishka, they had 2 seasonal capital cities which were Kabul in Spring and Summer then moving to Peshawr for Fall and Winter. Early in the 2nd century under Kanishka, the most powerful of the Kushan rulers, the empire reached its greatest geographic and cultural breadth to become a center of literature and art. Kanishka extended Kushan control to the mouth of the Indus River on the Arabian Sea, into Kashmir, and into what is today the Chinese-controlled area north of Tibet. Kanishka was a patron of religion and the arts. It was during his reign that Buddhism, which was promoted in northern India earlier by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka (c. 260 BC–232 BCE), reached its zenith in Central Asia. Though the Kushanas supported the worship of various local deities.

Sasanian Era (300–650 CE)
In the 3rd century, Kushan control fragmented into semi-independent kingdoms that became easy targets for conquest by the rising Iranian dynasty, the Sasanians (c. 224–561) which annexed Afghanistan by 300 AD. In these far off easternmost territories, they established vassal kings as rulers, known as the Kushanshahs. Sasanian control was tenuous at times as numerous challenges from Central Asian tribes led to instability and constant warfare in the region.

The disunited Kushan and Sasanian kingdoms were in a poor position to meet the threat several waves of Xionite/Huna invaders from the north from the 4th century onwards. In particular, the Hephthalites (or Ebodalo; Bactrian script ηβοδαλο) swept out of Central Asia during the 5th century into Bactria and Iran, overwhelming the last of the Kushan kingdoms. Historians believe that Hephthalite control continued for a century and was marked by constant warfare with the Sassanians to the west who exerted nominal control over the region. By the middle of the 6th century the Hephthalites were defeated in the territories north of the Amu Darya (the Oxus River of antiquity) by another group of Central Asian nomads, the Göktürks, and by the resurgent Sassanians in the lands south of the Amu Darya. It was the ruler of western Göktürks, Sijin (a.k.a. Sinjibu, Silzibul and Yandu Muchu Khan) who led the forces against the Hepthalites who were defeated at the Battle of Chach (Tashkent) and at the Battle of Bukhara.

Other

The Shahi dynasties ruled portions of the Kabul Valley (in eastern Afghanistan) and the old province of Gandhara (northern Pakistan and Kashmir) from the decline of the Kushan Empire in the 3rd century to the early 9th century. They are split into two eras the Buddhist Turk Shahis with the change-over occurring around 870, and ruled up until the Arab Islamic conquest of Afghanistan.

When Xuanzang visited the region early in the 7th century, the Kabul region was ruled by a Kshatriya king, who is identified as the Shahi Khingal, and whose name has been found in an inscription found in Gardez.

Archaeological remnants

Most of the indigenous Zoroastrian and non-indigenous Greek, Hellenistic, Buddhist, Hindu and other cultures were replaced by the coming of Islam and little influence remains in Afghanistan today. Along ancient trade routes, however, stone monuments of the once flourishing Buddhist culture did exist as reminders of the past. The two massive sandstone Buddhas of Bamyan, 35 and 53 meters high, overlooked the ancient route through Bamyan to Balkh and dated from the 3rd and 5th centuries. They survived until 2001, when they were destroyed by the Taliban. In this and other key places in Afghanistan, archaeologists have located frescoes, stucco decorations, statuary, and rare objects from as far away as China, Phoenicia, and Rome, which were crafted as early as the 2nd century and bear witness to the influence of these ancient civilizations upon Afghanistan.

One of the early Buddhist schools, the Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda, were known to be prominent in the area of Bamiyan. The Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang visited a Lokottaravāda monastery in the 7th century CE, at Bamiyan, Afghanistan, and this monastery site has since been rediscovered by archaeologists. Birchbark and palm leaf manuscripts of texts in this monastery's collection, including Mahāyāna sūtras, have been discovered at the site, and these are now located in the Schøyen Collection. Some manuscripts are in the Gāndhārī language and Kharoṣṭhī script, while others are in Sanskrit and written in forms of the Gupta script. Manuscripts and fragments that have survived from this monastery's collection include well-known Buddhist texts such as the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra (from the Āgamas), the Diamond Sūtra (Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā), the Medicine Buddha Sūtra, and the Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra.

In 2010, reports stated that about 42 Buddhist relics have been discovered in the Logar Province of Afghanistan, which is south of Kabul. Some of these items date back to the 2nd century according to Archaeologists. The items included two Buddhist temples (Stupas), Buddha statues, frescos, silver and gold coins and precious beads.

Other sources

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title: Ancient history of Afghanistan