churches will always be controlled by the church.

in order to control (change the churches sect), players will have to place priests in the church. The church's sect will be that that has the most priests of that sect. Priests of other sects can not be killed/removed but must be outnumbered. if the maximum number of priests is equal to another, the sect of that church will be none, it is said to be in transition. Priests are expensive unites to build. note: spies who are priests can change sect once he has been lodged in the church, best to do this once the player is using his majority to declare himself emperor, and give them a nasty surprise.

The churches role is that only they can crown the emperor. The Pope will be of the sect that has the most followers. This of course will change throughout the game depending on who controls the most churches. there will be about 6 sects. Each sect will have a different style eg: one will be obsessed with killing the alien menace, another with banning technologies, another in maintaining peace, etc. The church will be controlled by the computer and will have a powerful inquisition force.

It is your sect choice that gives you starting bonuses and you lose them if you are excommunicated, e.g your sect gives you a planet food production, population or industrial growth, military fanatics..... Further if the pope is of your sect, these bonuses are geratly increased and or you gain extra bonuses. Sects also have a style of belief e.g one sect hates techs so aims to ban most modern stuff, another hates warfare between the Houses so tries to encourage peace, another focuses on the aliens, your position within the sect can dictate the influence of the church e.g suggesting that such a tech (which your enemies happen to have and not you) is really evil, or suggesting the church liberate such and such a world close to you from the aliens while curiously ignoring an alien invasion in your adversaries domain.