Silent Hill Heaven

The order is fairly large, actually. This is shown by the many sects referenced in Homecoming and SH4. I believe that the sect Dahlia leads is the Holy Mother, much like Claudia. That's why they seek to birth God through the mother, Cheryl/Alessa, and Heather. Maybe another girl in a future SH game, though I don't see that happening lately,

>How big was the cult anyway?<
By the time of Silent Hill, the Order wasn't terribly large, but "despite the fact that the religious cult to which Dahlia belongs is a secret society, [it has] come to possess the sort of structure and organizational capability that allows them to manufacture narcotics beyond the reach of police surveillance." Furthermore, "It can be surmised that the cult's influence grew over a period of seventeen years before the church was constructed."

So, it's not big, but big enough to influence people, until it becomes a more established religion.

>I believe that the sect Dahlia leads is the Holy Mother<
Dahlia belongs to the Sect of the Holy Woman.

Dahlia don't rule anything. She was just a high ranking member, like Leonard Wolf.

Also, one of the leaders of the Order was Jimmy Stone a.k.a The Red Devil.

I believe Toby Archbolt would take his place as leader of the Valtiel sect but both of 'em died. . .

I've been wondering for some time whether "sect" is really the appropriate word to describe the Holy Woman, Holy Mother, and Valtiel organizations.

"Sect" usually implies an adversarial relationship. At best, sects merely tolerate each other's existence. The group that split off and moved to Shepherd's Glen fits the model of a sect separate from the Order.

Meanwhile, the Holy Woman, Holy Mother, and Valtiel organizations are shown to be interdependent. They seem to share the same theology, but place different emphases on the most important factor. Their relationship seems more akin to (albeit not the same as) the various monastic orders in the Catholic Church. Wouldn't it be more accurate to describe them in that way?

"The Sect of Valtiel, centered around Jimmy Stone, a priest with an alias 'Red Devil,' was a faction that worshipped Valtiel as the one close to god and also an executioner.
The Sect of Valtiel was also responsible for the intermediation of the Sect of the Holy Woman and the Sect of the Holy Mother, which were in opposition to each other." —Joseph Schreiber, July 7

They are officially known as sects, as well.

Yeah, I know, and I guess I shouldn't argue with that.

Still... it doesn't seem right.

Then you can blame that on the developer's use of words then, it seems okay to me.

I always felt that while they maintain a form of relationship to one another, the different Silent Hill sects are somewhat adversarial to each other. They're just not as completely fractured and hostile as The Holy Way.