Chief executive of the largest Lutheran body on earth — ~78.4 million across 150 member churches — from the Communion Office in Geneva . An Estonian theologian, and the first woman ever to hold the post , since November 2021 . In a tradition with no primate, the general secretary is the nearest thing to a permanent centre. In post · verified 07-27
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsThe field file →
The LWF's elected head, chosen at the Thirteenth Assembly in Kraków, September 2023 . An ordained pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark , where he serves as Bishop of Viborg . He presides; Burghardt runs the machine — the standard split in a federation that refuses a primate.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds⚠︎ The most consequential card in this deck. Chairman of the confessional world body (~7.15m) since September 2022, and Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland. Criminally convicted 26 March 2026 , 3–2 in Finland's Supreme Court, over a 2004 pamphlet — after two acquittals . Fined €1,100 ; his diocese's corporate agency €5,000 . He did not recant. Convicted 03-2026 · still in post
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Head of the largest confessional Lutheran church in North America, elected on the third ballot to a sixth term for the 2026–2029 triennium . Six terms is the longest continuous grip on any office in this deck — the LCMS has been separate from the American mainline since 1847 and shows no sign of converging.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Elected at the Churchwide Assembly in Phoenix on 30 July 2025 , in office 1 October , installed 4 October in Minneapolis. Formerly Bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod. The first African-American and first person of colour to lead the ELCA , and its fifth presiding bishop. New in 2025 · verified 07-27
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Head of one of the largest Lutheran churches by nominal membership and among the least attended by proportion — the establishment hangover in one card . Elected 8 June 2022 , installed 4 December 2022 . Sweden separated church and state in 2000 and attendance did not recover.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
⚠︎ Co-defendant in the Bible Trial and the reason it is known worldwide. Convicted 3–2 on 26 March 2026 over the 2004 pamphlet Pohjola published — and unanimously acquitted on the separate charge of tweeting a Bible verse in 2019 . Fined €1,800 . In May 2026 she announced an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights , continuing a seven-year fight. Quoting Scripture was held lawful; explaining it was not. Appealing to ECHR · verified 07-27
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsPresiding Bishop of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Hungary and the LWF's voice for the churches that spent two generations under officially atheist states. The region with the longest living memory of what it is to confess under a hostile government — which in 2026 is no longer a historical speciality.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsHolds the region of Wittenberg itself — and of the steepest institutional decline in the tradition, with the EKD losing members annually and the church-tax base eroding. The homeland vice-presidency is now a managed-contraction post.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsThe Asian regional voice in a communion whose growth is entirely outside Europe. Indonesia holds one of the largest Lutheran populations on earth — a fact that surprises almost everyone who thinks of this tradition as German.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsThe Nordic vice-presidency — the established churches with enormous nominal rolls and very thin attendance . An academic theologian rather than a diocesan bishop, which is itself a signal about where the Nordic churches locate their authority now.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsRepresents the LWF-aligned North American churches — the ELCA and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada . Note what this seat does not cover: the LCMS and the confessional bodies sit in the ILC and are not in this communion at all.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds★ A lay vice-president of a world communion — which is the priesthood of all believers showing up in the constitution rather than only in the sermon. Brazil and the Southern Cone churches carry this region.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsHead of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus since his election by the 20th General Assembly in January 2017 (274 of 446 votes), and since September 2023 the Lutheran World Federation's Vice-President for Africa, elected at Kraków. He holds the seat the July deck could not verify, so the seventh LWF region is now dealt. In June 2025 he preached at the opening of the LWF Council in Addis Ababa, in the Mekane Yesus mother church. The tradition's centre of gravity has a name, and it is his.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsElected by the ELCT's 21st General Assembly in August 2023 for four years and sworn in as Presiding Bishop on 21 January 2024. It is his second time in the chair: he had already served two four-year terms before Frederick Shoo (2015). The ELCT is led by a presiding bishop over twenty-eight dioceses.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsDealt 8 October 2026, closing the gap the July deck named first. Two cards are verified: the heads of the Ethiopian and Tanzanian churches, among the largest Lutheran bodies on earth. The heads of the Malagasy Lutheran Church (Denis Rakotozafy, elected November 2020), the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia could not be confirmed in office for 2026, so they are not dealt. The suit stays short until they are.
Dossier XVIII · Lutheranism · dealt 2026-07-27 · every card checked online the same day.