Bartholomew I
First among equals of world Orthodoxy, 35 years on the throne of Constantinople at 86. Gave Ukraine its church — and Moscow its casus belli. 2025 Templeton Prize. Reigning · verified 07-24
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsThe field file →← The Eastern Orthodox Church: the dossier
The deck · 52 cards
Field Deck — companion to Dossier I · Eastern Orthodoxy
The Living-Power Deck
Fifty-two who hold the thrones now · the rank is the value
☦ How to read the deck
A true 52-card deck of the living — only people who hold power in Orthodoxy right now, in 2026:
reigning primates and living, influential figures. No dead saints, no departed patriarchs — history belongs in the
dossier, not the deck. The four suits are four kinds of present power, and the rank is the value —
the Ace is the summit of that kind, then King, Queen, Jack, down through 10 to 2. Rank measures the
weight of the office, not the worth of the person. Orthodoxy has no pope — its helm is fourteen thrones in
communion, and its second suit is the ground where those thrones now collide.
✓ Every one of the 52 was verified online as living and in office on 2026-07-24.
The check caught a throne that changed four months ago — Ilia II of Georgia died in March 2026 and Shio III
was enthroned in May — plus Albania's succession (Anastasios † Jan 2025 → Joani), a deposed metropolitan, a
laicized nun and a Bessarabian resignation, all of which the old way would have shipped. Offices decay;
re-verify each name at every audit.
♠ Spades — The Thrones. The reigning primates of the self-headed churches.
♦ Diamonds — The Fault Lines. The men on the Moscow–Constantinople break.
♥ Hearts — The Shepherds. Diaspora primates, the Holy Mountain & living elders.
♣ Clubs — The Voices. Living theologians, scholars & the new media.
♠The Thronesthe reigning primates of the autocephalous churches · 13 cards
Kirill
Head of the largest Orthodox church on earth, 79. Calls the invasion of Ukraine a "Holy War" for Holy Russia — the throne with the most flock and the heaviest shadow.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsDaniel
Leads the second-largest Orthodox church, 75 — and the most vigorous in Europe, now receiving the Moldovan parishes fleeing Moscow's wing.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Theophilos III
Guardian of the holiest ground in Christendom, 74 — the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and a shrinking, pressured flock across the Holy Land.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
John X
Holds the throne of Peter's first see from Damascus, 71, through Syria's long ruin. His own brother, Metropolitan Paul of Aleppo, has been missing since his 2013 kidnapping.
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Theodore II
Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa , 71, over two decades on the second see of ancient rank — now watching Moscow plant rival altars across his continent.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Porfirije
46th Serbian Patriarch, balancing Belgrade, Kosovo's monasteries and a restive Montenegro — and still received in Moscow, where he met Putin in April 2025.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Ieronymos II
Primate of the Church of Greece at 88 — the state church of the one nation where Orthodoxy is still the constitutional faith. Recognized Ukraine's new church.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsDaniil
Elected June 2024 after Neofit's death, 54. Which way Sofia leans between Moscow and Constantinople now runs through him. Elected 2024
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Shio III
The newest throne in Orthodoxy : enthroned at Svetitskhoveli on 12 May 2026 after Ilia II died in March, ending a 48-year reign. A church of 3.5M waits to learn who he is. Enthroned May 2026
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
George III
Elected December 2022 after Chrysostomos II. Helms a synod openly split over Ukraine — two of his own metropolitans sit in this deck's fault-line suit.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsJoani
Enthroned March 2025, successor to Anastasios (†Jan 2025), who rebuilt this church from the rubble of the world's first officially atheist state. Joani inherits the resurrection. Enthroned 2025
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Sawa
Primate of the Polish Orthodox Church at 88 — a small throne, but one of the fourteen, held for nearly three decades on Orthodoxy's western march.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds♦The Fault Linesthe men on the Moscow–Constantinople break · 13 cards
Epiphanius I
Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, 47 — the church whose 2019 tomos from Bartholomew split world Orthodoxy in two . Every other card in this suit stands somewhere on his line. Verified 07-24
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsOnufriy
Heads Ukraine's formerly Moscow-tied church, 81, caught between a country at war and a patriarch who blesses it. Zelensky revoked his citizenship in July 2025 over a secret Russian passport. Citizenship revoked 2025
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Anthony (Sevryuk)
Patriarch Kirill's foreign minister at just 41 — chairman of External Church Relations and permanent Holy Synod member. The youngest man at the top table of world Orthodoxy.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsEmmanuel of Chalcedon
Constantinople's senior statesman and top diplomat, 67 — a central hand in delivering the Ukrainian tomos, and holder of the Phanar's most senior metropolitan see.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Tikhon (Shevkunov)
Named to annexed Crimea's see in 2023 and long reputed to be Putin's personal confessor — neither man confirms nor denies it. Where church and Kremlin actually touch.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsKonstantin (Ostrovsky)
Runs Moscow's Exarchate of Africa — Bishop of Cairo and North Africa since July 2025 — recruiting Alexandria's own priests onto Alexandria's own ground. Payback for Theodore II recognizing the OCU. ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-08: Card says 'Bishop of Cairo and North Africa'; the Exarchate's own record says he was raised to Metropolitan on 2024-03-24 and the 2025-07-24 Synod made him Metropolitan of Cairo and North Africa. Still exarch in 2026 (Paschal epistle 2026-04-11). UNSOURCED: recruiting Alexandria's priests, 'payback' framing.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · CHANGED
Stephanos of Tallinn
Constantinople's primate in Estonia; calls the Russkiy Mir "expansionist and fundamentally un-Christian." Tallinn's new law now forces the rival Moscow church to cut its ties by December.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsYevgeny (Reshetnikov)
Estonia refused to renew his residence permit as a security threat; he left in February 2024 and runs his church from Moscow by remote — a see governed in exile, on NATO soil. In exile
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Vladimir (Cantarean)
Moscow's metropolitan in Moldova — while roughly 200 of his parishes have defected to Romania's rival Metropolis of Bessarabia since the invasion. The war's quiet second church-front. ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-11: Still Metropolitan of Chișinău and All Moldova (Wikipedia). But "roughly 200 parishes" is not supported. Europa Liberă reported "dozens", and UOJ (Sep 2024) and Metropolitan Petru (2025) say more than 60. The nearly-200 figure comes only from an undated interview on the Bessarabian side. Use "more than 60".
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · CHANGED
Joanikije II
Enthroned at Cetinje under riot police and tear gas — the Serbian church's man in a state that half wants it gone. Macron called on him at Cetinje in June 2026.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsJob (Getcha) of Pisidia
The Phanar's scholar-diplomat, 52 — co-president of the official Orthodox–Catholic dialogue , Byzantine liturgy expert, and a blunt defender of Constantinople's rights in Ukraine.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsRastislav
The fourteenth throne, 48, seated here because the fault runs through it: his election was contested by Constantinople and recognized only in 2016, and his church still leans Moscow's way.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsNeophytos of Morphou
Cyprus's firebrand, 64 — walked out of a Liturgy over commemoration of Ukraine's primate, and preaches conspiracies his own synod winces at. Proof the fault lines run inside synods too.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds♥The Shepherdsdiaspora primates, the holy mountain & living elders · 13 cards
Elpidophoros
Leads the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, 58 — the diaspora's most consequential seat , and Constantinople's strong right arm in the New World.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsGeorgios Vatopaidinos
Took office 14 June 2026 as head of the Holy Epistasia — the chief executive of the Holy Mountain , the monastic republic that is Orthodoxy's beating heart. Took office June 2026
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsAthanasios of Limassol
Athos-formed metropolitan, 67, and among the most listened-to spiritual fathers in the Greek-speaking world — proof a diocesan throne can still be an elder's cell.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsZacharias (Zacharou)
Direct disciple of St Sophrony of Essex, heir of the St Silouan lineage — the living voice of that school of prayer, teaching the heart's descent worldwide.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Nicholas (Olhovsky)
First Hierarch of the Russian Church Outside Russia from New York — shepherd of the old White-Russian exile church, now swelling with American converts.
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Tikhon (Mollard)
Metropolitan of All America and Canada, 60 — primate of the Orthodox Church in America, the autocephaly Moscow granted and Constantinople never accepted.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsSaba (Esper)
Syrian-born metropolitan of the Antiochian Archdiocese from Englewood NJ — a Latakia pastor now leading the American jurisdiction most swollen with evangelical converts.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsMakarios
Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church of Australia and Exarch of all Oceania, 53 — Constantinople's youngest great-diaspora archbishop, holding the southern hemisphere.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsNikitas
The Ecumenical Patriarchate's archbishop in Britain, 71 — Florida-born, holding the historic Thyateira throne through Britain's quiet Orthodox growth.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsSilouan (Oner)
First metropolitan of Antioch's young British archdiocese — the jurisdiction that has quietly become the landing place for Britain's convert wave.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsIrenei (Steenberg)
Scholar-bishop of ROCOR's European diocese — a patristics academic turned hierarch, carving four new deaneries in 2026 for a diocese growing faster than its structures.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsAntony (Scharba)
Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA under Constantinople, 79 — shepherd of the Ukrainian diaspora through the hardest years it has known since the famine.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsTryphon
Abbot of All-Merciful Saviour Monastery in Puget Sound; his Morning Offering reaches thousands daily, and his monks pay the bills roasting Monastery Blend coffee.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds♣The Voicesliving theologians, scholars & the new media · 13 cards
Jonathan Pageau
The widest-reaching Orthodox voice on the internet — icon carver whose Symbolic World and dialogues with Jordan Peterson pulled a generation toward the door of the Church.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
David Bentley Hart
The most argued-about living Orthodox theologian — The Experience of God , his own New Testament, and a universalism ( That All Shall Be Saved ) our house must answer, not ignore.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
John Behr
Former dean of St Vladimir's, now Regius Professor of Humanity at Aberdeen — the leading living scholar of Irenaeus and the shape of early Christian theology.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsFr Stephen De Young
Louisiana pastor and biblical scholar whose Lord of Spirits podcast and Religion of the Apostles re-enchanted the Bible's unseen world for a mass audience.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Rod Dreher
Orthodox convert whose Benedict Option and Live Not by Lies set the terms for how besieged Christians talk about the Secular Age — cross-read with Dossier X.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsFr Andrew S. Damick
Chief Content Officer of Ancient Faith Ministries — the media engine of English-speaking Orthodoxy — co-host of Lord of Spirits and author of Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy .
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Andrew Louth
Fellow of the British Academy, 81 — priest and patristics master whose Discerning the Mystery and Modern Orthodox Thinkers trained the field's living generation.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsFr Maximos Constas
Schema-monk of Simonopetra turned Harvard and Holy Cross professor — the leading American hand on Maximus the Confessor and the Philokalia .
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsJean-Claude Larchet
French lay patrologist of 36 books in 19 languages — his Theology of Illness and Therapy of Spiritual Illnesses made the Fathers a working medicine chest again. ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-08: Card's '36 books in 19 languages' is outdated. OrthodoxWiki: author of 37 books (2024), translated into 19 languages (2022). French Wikipedia now says 38 books in 22 languages. Born 1949-08-09.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · CHANGEDFr Josiah Trenham
Durham-doctored archpriest of St Andrew, Riverside, since 1998; his Patristic Nectar catalogue is the conservative voice of American Orthodoxy — including on the machines.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsFr John Strickland
Priest-historian whose four-volume Paradise and Utopia tells Christendom's rise and unraveling from an Orthodox eye — the long story behind every card here.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsPeter Bouteneff
St Vladimir's systematic theologian, founder of the Arvo Pärt Project — bridging Orthodoxy's sound to the concert hall; new book on the Chalcedonian divide out in 2026.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Frederica Mathewes-Green
Author of Facing East and The Jesus Prayer — the gentle voice that walked a generation of American converts, ours included in spirit, through Orthodoxy's front door.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Figures Deck · companion to Dossier I · Eastern Orthodoxy ·
Fifty-two who hold the keys today — every card verified living and in office 2026-07-24. The dead belong to the dossier; the deck is the land of the living.
☦ Eis polla eti — many years ☦
LAMPSTAND 7Fifty-two who hold the keys today — every card verified living and in office 2026-07-24. The dead belong to the dossier; the deck is the land of the living.
☦ Eis polla eti — many years ☦