Vana Dandreal: Difference between revisions
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{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix = Her Most Esteemed Beneficience
|name = Vana Dandreal
|caption = Portrait of the Matron painted in 2020.
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|deputy =
|successor =
|office1 = High Priestess of
|term_start1 = 14 April 1994
|term_end1 = 23 December 2002
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|successor1 = Mena Devražon
|majority1 =
|office2 =
|term_start2 =
|term_end2 = 13 April 1994
|predecessor2 =
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|birth_name = Vana Nevran Dandreal
|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1950|1|19|df=yes}}
|birth_place =
|death_date =
|death_place =
|party =
|spouse =
|residence = Temple of the Emergence, Crystal Coast, [[
|alma_mater =
|signature = Vana signature.svg
|website =
}}
'''Vana Dandreal''' (born January 19th, 1950) is the current leader of the Elders, the governing body of the [[Akronism|Church of Akrona]], and therefore considered to be the presiding officer over the church and leader of the faith
==Early Life==
Vana Dandreal was
Vana's mother passed away in 1961 when she was 11 years old. In the course of her work as a custodian, Leina Dandreal was exposed to a particular kind of caustic cleaning chemical that was sold under the brand-name ''Numinol'', which was found to cause lung cancer in people exposed regularly to the chemical. The story happened to catch the attention of a local newspaper reporter who launched an investigation into Numinol that found that executives at Eastern Shipworks had known as early as 1954 that custodial workers were passing away from lung cancer but continued to use Numinol because it was the cheapest cleaning chemical available on the market. This created a national controversy and Doran Dandreal would file a lawsuit against Eastern Shipworks in 1965. The lawsuit was delayed significantly by the Shipworks filing several motions to dismiss the case or to appeal various verdicts. It was not until 1989 when the Supreme Civil Court finally ruled against the Shipworks' last appeal and ordered that they pay damages that had originally been ordered by a court in 1970. Doran had died the previous year, and the Matron, who was then serving as the Priestess of North Dravai parish, was awarded the largest ever payment for damages in a non-class action suit in Tavari history: ŋ750,000,000. Because the Shipworks had successfully convinced the courts to not allow other plaintiffs in the case, and because Vana Dandreal was the only living heir of her mother (who had died 28 years previously), Vana received the entire amount of the settlement. The sum, which bankrupted the shipyard, was donated to the Church in its entirety.
==Religious Positions==
Dandreal is known as a much more "activist" Matron than her closest predecessors. A motto of hers as Matron has been that "our Church is a powerful force for good." She is on the record stating that the Church should take more action domestically as well as internationally to ensure the well-being of life on Urth. On her initiative, the Church began a project of funding the construction of hospitals abroad, leading to more than 50 hospitals being built between 2012 and 2020. The current Matron has traveled more internationally than any other Matron in history, with trips to 38 different countries as of 2020. She has encouraged the faithful to "speak out against injustice whenever you see it, whether it comes from a stranger, your family, your government, your boss, or even your church" and has made statements herself in opposition to what she sees as violations of sapient rights abroad. Over her term as Matron, she has also recommitted the Church to its mission of accepting orphans and finding them parents, citing her own example as reason why to do so. In 2000, Akronist adoption services found parents for 1,456 children worldwide. In 2020, that number had increased to 36,414.
While historically most Matrons are known as very reserved and formal figures, the current Matron has relaxed many of the formalities that have traditionally bound her office. For instance, she regularly appears in public wearing "non-religious" clothing while not performing religious ceremonies. While her clothing is still conservative by any standard, with her skirts regularly reaching to the ankles, she is considered to be something of a fashion icon in Tavaris. She is known particularly for wearing high heeled shoes. She also favors the usage of more contemporary language in ceremonies, and encourages clergy to focus on preaching in ways that reaches out to their temple-goers rather than focusing strictly on formal rituals. She has said that "it is far more important that we do work out in the world - feed the hungry, shelter the exposed, welcome the outcast - than it is for us to earn a perfect attendance award from the local temple." In a more blunt quote, one of her most famous, she has also said "I would rather you sleep in on the full moon and enjoy your day off work rather than come to the temple if all you're going to do is balance your checkbook and hum along to the hymns. You can try again in the next life."
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