Sean W. Rowe
Elected June 2024 and in office from 1 November 2024 for nine years. He told his church in 2025 that, once the church of presidents, it must now be an engine of resistance.
Verified 10-07← Mainline Protestantism: the dossier
The deck · 24 cards
How to read this deckThe living power of the American mainline. ♠ the heads of the five great denominations and the bishops of their largest dioceses and areas, ♦ the councils, houses and treasuries that bind and fund them, ♥ the public voices, ♣ the breakaways that left. Plotted in full on 7 October 2026: 24 cards. The deck stops where public power thins out. Not dealt: suffragan and assisting bishops, agency staff below the chief, and single congregations. The Global Methodist Church's eight new bishops take office on 5 November 2026 and wait for the next audit. Ranks are this house's reading of weight within each suit (the reach of the office first, then the size of the body or fund), not a league table.
♠The Heads10 cards
Yehiel Curry
Elected 30 July 2025 and in office from 1 October 2025, the first Black presiding bishop of the ELCA's 2.59 million members.
Verified 10-07Ruben Saenz Jr.
Installed as president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops on 1 May 2026, succeeding Bishop Tracy S. Malone. The UMC is the largest mainline body, with about 5 million US members after the disaffiliations.
Verified 10-07Jihyun Oh
Stated Clerk of the General Assembly and executive director of the Office of the General Assembly. She led the 227th Assembly in Milwaukee (June–July 2026) and in August 2026 signed a letter condemning killings by ICE.
Verified 10-07Karen Georgia A. Thompson
Head of the United Church of Christ, the first woman and first woman of African descent to lead it.
Verified 10-07Mande Muyombo
Bishop of the UMC's largest episcopal area, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with three annual conferences and more than a million members. The UMC's future weight is African, and this card marks it.
Verified 10-07Matthew F. Heyd
Installed 10 February 2024 over the Diocese of New York, seat of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and of Trinity Wall Street, where he was formerly a senior executive. It is the Episcopal Church's richest and most visible diocese.
Verified 10-07C. Andrew Doyle
Bishop Diocesan of Texas since 7 June 2009. Texas is one of the Episcopal Church's largest dioceses, with about 72,000 members in 163 congregations (2023). Two bishops suffragan, Jeff Fisher and Kathryn "Kai" Ryan, and an assistant bishop serve under him.
Verified 10-07Robin Dease
Resident bishop of North and South Georgia since 2022, and the first African American bishop of the North Georgia Conference, one of the UMC's largest US conferences.
Verified 10-07Tracy S. Malone
The first Black woman to preside over the UMC Council of Bishops, until 1 May 2026. She remains resident bishop of Indiana and is one of the denomination's senior voices.
Verified 10-07♦The Councils & Treasuries11 cards
Andrew Q. Hendren
Runs Wespath Benefits and Investments, which administers benefit plans for more than 100,000 people serving United Methodist institutions. It is one of the largest faith-based retirement funds in the world: the money that pays the denomination's clergy.
Verified 10-07Mary Kate Wold
Heads the Church Pension Group, a financial enterprise of about $17.7 billion that provides the Episcopal Church's pensions and its health, life and property insurance.
Verified 10-07Krysten Carter Holloway
Confirmed by the 227th General Assembly on 28 June 2026 to lead the PC(USA)'s Board of Pensions. She is the first African American woman and the first person of color to head the agency.
Verified 10-07Vashti Murphy McKenzie
Leads the National Council of Churches, which unites 37 communions, more than 30 million people in about 100,000 congregations, and keeps the mainline's lobby in Washington. She is an AME bishop.
Verified 10-07Julia Ayala Harris
Elected in 2022, the first Latina to preside over the Episcopal Church's lay-and-clergy house. With the Presiding Bishop she signed a February 2026 court brief against the administration's asylum policies.
Verified 10-07Phillip A. Jackson
Instituted on 26 February 2022 as Trinity's first Black rector. Its Manhattan property makes Trinity the best-endowed parish in the Episcopal Church, and its grants reach well beyond its walls.
Verified 10-07Chris Johnson
Runs Portico, which provides pensions and health plans for the ELCA's clergy and lay workers.
Verified 10-07Thomas F. Taylor
Confirmed by the 227th General Assembly on 28 June 2026 to a fifth term leading the Presbyterian Foundation, which manages endowments and charitable gifts for PC(USA) ministries.
Verified 10-07Roland Fernandes
Heads two United Methodist agencies at once: Global Ministries (mission and relief) and Higher Education and Ministry (its colleges, seminaries and clergy credentialing).
Verified 10-07Marta Pumroy-Cordero
Elected with Kristopher Schondelmeyer on the first ballot on 2 July 2026, with 250 of 380 votes against three other teams. Together they preside over PC(USA) until 2028.
Verified 10-07Kristopher Schondelmeyer
Elected with Marta Pumroy-Cordero on the first ballot on 2 July 2026.
Verified 10-07♥The Public Voices1 cards
Mariann Edgar Budde
Bishop since 2011. In January 2025 she asked President Trump from the National Cathedral pulpit to "have mercy", and in January 2026 she led clergy protests in Minneapolis. On 1 October 2026 she announced her resignation, effective when a successor is consecrated in June 2028, and in October 2026 she appeared in an election ad. She is the mainline's most-watched public voice.
Verified 10-07♣The Breakaways2 cards
Keith Boyette
Chief executive of the Global Methodist Church, the traditionalist body formed by churches that left the UMC. It reports growth from about 4,700 congregations after 2024 to about 7,250 at its 2026 General Conference in Johannesburg, the mainline's largest breakaway. That conference elected its first eight full-time bishops, who take office on 5 November 2026.
Verified 10-07Dan Selbo
Bishop of the North American Lutheran Church, the confessional body that left the ELCA after 2009. Elected in 2019 and re-elected in 2023 with 77% on the first ballot.
Verified 10-07