What are the names of the senior member, figures, clerics, etc... in
the main religions and sub-groups within religions? (e.g. for
Christianity this would include Catholics, Protestants, C of E,
etc...)

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 02 Feb 2005 06:52 PST

I'm not sure how far down the chain of command you are referring to
when you say "senior members" but I think this will answer your
question in terms of who comprised the most recognized CONTEMPORARY
RELIGIOUS LEADERS at the moment (keeping in mind that some religions
are autonomous and have no central leader or headquarters to whom they
look for guidance):

MAJOR RELIGIOUS LEADERS
http://www.adherents.com/adh_leaders.html
(scroll down beginning with the area labeled 'Famous Contemporary
Religious Leaders')


Please let me know of this works for you

tutuzdad-ga

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Clarification of Question by ben_rox-ga on 04 Feb 2005 07:24 PST

What I really need when I say contempoary relgious leaders is a list
of the main people of each religion.

This would extend to different sects within the same religions (e.g
the different prelates within the Catholic church).

My aim is to be able to look at a name and ascertain whether they are
part of a religious movement is any kind of senior capacity.

For Catholicism, I would need to know not just who the Pope was, but
also the names of Cardinals - but no further down the chain.

Hope this helps!

Ben

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 04 Feb 2005 19:07 PST

The problem here is that your request is far too complex and time
consuming for (probably) even the maximum offering to attract a good
answer. One source indicates that there are 22 major world religions.
However, under "Christianity" alone the subgroups read like a
complicated genealogy:

African Independent Churches (AICs), the Aglipayan Church, Amish,
Anglicans, Armenian Apostolic, Assemblies of God; Baptists, Calvary
Chapel, Catholics, Christadelphians, Christian Science, the Community
of Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Coptic
Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches, Ethiopian Orthodox,
Evangelicals, Iglesia ni Cristo, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Local
Church, Lutherans, Methodists, Nestorians, the New Apostolic Church,
Pentecostals, Plymouth Brethren, Presbyterians, the Salvation Army,
Seventh-Day Adventists, Shakers, Stone-Campbell churches (Disciples of
Christ; Churches of Christ; the "Christian Church and Churches of
Christ"; the International Church of Christ); Uniate churches, United
Church of Christ/Congregationalists, the Unity Church, Universal
Church of the Kingdom of God, Vineyard churches and others.

Within each of these groups are the major divisions you mentioned, and
some of them have a multitude of branches, subdivisions, denominations
and variations of the main faith. Baptists, for example, are many and
varied. They don't all answer to the same central figure. Churches of
Christ, on the other hand (called protestants here, but they are
actually not) are autonomous and answer to no central figure at all -
each has its own group of elders, deacons or ministers under whom they
function.

Once this research is done, one would have to move on to major
religion #2 and start the process again. I hope someone can help you
but, speaking only for myself, I'm afraid your request is probably
just too formidable to be a realistic expectation.

ADHERENTS.COM
http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html

tutuzdad-ga