The world's most powerful religious leaders

The Pope

The Bishop of Rome and the Vicar of Christ has “supreme and universal power over the whole Church” which comprises over 1.1 billion people. He is “successor of blessed Peter” and endowed with infallibility. The Pope is pronounced to have ordinary, immediate and Episcopal jurisdiction over all the faithful.

Archbishop of Canterbury
Dr Rowan Williams is leader of 77 million Anglicans worldwide but he has no power to make any of his 38 bishops bend to his will. The Archbishop of Canterbury is considered the highest person in the realm, second only to the Sovereign and other members of the Royal family. He is followed by the Lord Chancellor, and then the Archbishop of York.

Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama – translated as the Ocean of wisdom - is Head of the Tibetan state but is in self-imposed exile. The Dalai has the power to reincarnate himself.
In 1963 the current incarnation of the Dalai Lama drew up a democratic constitution promulgated a democratic constitution, based on Buddhist principles and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as a model for a future free Tibet. He is also holder of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Queen
As head Supreme Governor of the Church of England, the monarch maintains the established church. The defender of the faith also appoints the Archbishops and bishops on the advice of the Prime Minister. Between 13-17 million members of the Church of England. Nearly 50 million subjects as monarch of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The queen is alone in having the power to oust the Archbishop of Canterbury from office.

Sunni Islam does not have leaders as the term is recognised in Christian circles. Since 1926, when Ataturk declared the end of the Caliphate, there has been no Caliph – official leader. When the Caliphate was in operation it was not equivalent to a Pope for Catholics or Dalai Lama for Buddhists.
The next entry should be considered as leading figure in Sunni Islam.

Muhammad Sayid Tantawy the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque, one of the most influential Sunni Muslim Institutions. He is a leading authority for Sunni Muslims.

 

Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah A leading figure of Shi'a Islam. Born in Iraq Fadlallah now resides in Lebanon where he gives a weekly sermon to members of Hezbollah - The Party of God. He courted controversy by showing support for the 1983 bombing of the American Embassy in Beirut.  However he has spoken out against the events of 9/11 and other suicide bombings.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani as the leading authority in Shi'a Islam in Iraq the Ayatollah has huge power over Iraq's Shi'a majority and holds enormous sway over Shi'a Muslims worldwide.

Yona Metzger: Chief Rabbi of Israel (Ashkenazi) was appointed to office in 2003 and has put forward the idea for a 'religious United Nations'.

Shlomo Amar Chief Rabbi of Israel (Sephardi) appointed to office in 2003.

 

Sri Mata Amritanandamayi is a Hindu spiritual leader. She was born in 1953 in India and as a youngster often went into trances to communicate with the divine. She became a guru and is known as the 'hugging saint', her cuddle is known as the 'darshan' and an estimated 26 million people have huggeed her. She is respected as a living god and travels around the world visiting people who wait to be hugged by her.

Li Hongzhi founder of the Falung Gong, a mind and body enhancement technique which draws on Buddhism and Taoism and claims 100 million followers.

Ariffin Muhamed leader of the Sky Kingdom based in Malaysia, who claims to be the saviour of the world and says he allows his followers to be members of any faith. His followers believe him to be the incarnation of Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad and Shiva and that he will return as the Imam Mahdi.

George O. Wood Superintendent of the Assemblies of God Church America
The US Assemblies of God Church as over 2.8 million members and is the largest Pentecostal denomination in America. Claims to powers of prophecy and gifts of healing are marks of this denomination.

Joginder Singh Vedanti
The Jathedar, high priest, of the Golden Temple in Amritsar India. Vendati is the most powerful leader of the Sikh community in India if not the world. He was at the Golden Temple during Operation Bluestar in 1984 when the Sikhs and the Indian Army found themselves in violent confrontation. He has spoken out in favour of equality for women in the Sikh faith.

Adolfo Nicolas leader of the Society of Jesus was elected as The Black Pope in January this year. The Jesuits are the largest male religious order in the Roman Catholic Church with over 19,000 members.

Comments

[jim masters]

All the rest put together are nothing next to the pope. By far the most powerful man on Earth. People won't accept that because he never uses his worldly power, and often does not use his spiritual power. Hence he has never consecrated Russia to the Immaculate heart of Mary as asked at Fatima, so Russia (communism) using the manpower of China shall rise again and make one final push for world domination and in the process thereof create the greatest suffering and crisis in the history of humankind. Im talking WW3 of course....

[Ted]

The Pope isn't powerful so much as a leader who is showing the path of life, love and truth, a way principally led by Jesus Christ.

[Mary]

I had no idea that Rowan Williams had that much power. (All the more reason he needs to take care as to what sort of rubbish he spews out. By 'rubbish' I am refering to his proposal to include sharia law along side British law.)

[Sam Herman]

It's true, sometimes these guys in black hats all look the same, but in this case you've done one of them a grave injustice. Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar has a magnificent white beard, and wears official garb in quite a different style. He's certainly not a twin of Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger!

[Vinu Nambiar]

Great, the hugging saint Mata Amritanadamayi is in the top 10 of the most influential religious leaders of the world. Amma is the symbol of compassion, love,& peace for the world and my personal experience says that every single human being on the planet earth must meet this great saint atleast once in their lifetime to personally experience the difference it would make for them to discover their true self.

[Cranmer]

Her Majesty is not the head of the Church of England; she is Supreme Governor. Jesus is the Head.

[Heresiarch]

The world's most powerful religious leader is surely Ayatollah Khamanei of Iran, the Supreme Leader who has far more power than President Ahadinejad. In terms of pure numbers, of course, the Pope has more followers. But he doesn't have the final say over a putative nuclear weapons programme.

[Heresiarch]

You could also mention Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow, who appears to wield considerable political influence in Russia, and has managed to influence several important laws, usually in a repressive direction. The theoretical leader of Orthodox Christianity, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, has considerably less sway, but he has made a name for himself as an environmental campaigner, and has an estimated 350 million believers who acknowledge his primacy, making him second to the Pope. How did you miss him?

[T Ives]

"The Dalai has the power to reincarnate himself."
Surely in your religious leaders Top Trumps that makes him the most powerful.

[alfonso parelli]

Ali Khamenei. OBVIOUSLY. wheres he?

[Neven]

Falun Gong is not a religion. It has no worship, ritual or devotional practices. There is no deity nor any personality to follow. It does, nevertheless, share similar goals and themes with traditional religions, such as emphasizing high moral standards, offering an insight into the mysteries and truth of the universe, understanding the purpose of human life and guiding spiritual fulfilment. However, Falun Gong does not have any temples, rites, ceremonies or clergy.

Mr. Li Hongzhi (family name is Li) introduced the practice of Falun Gong to the general public in China in 1992. He then taught the practice publicly for two years in China, after which the practice continued to grow primarily by word-of-mouth. In keeping with Chinese tradition, Mr. Li is often respectfully referred to as "Master" or "Teacher." He is not accorded special treatment, nor does he accept money or donations from students of Falun Gong. He has ensured that the practice be available to all people, and without any terms or conditions. For his contributions to humanity he has been given over 400 honors and awards, and is a two-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee.

http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/9/1/52070.html

http://www.falundafa.org/eng/faqs.html

[Kara Swart]

These are all unecessary middlemen between Man & God. If you want to realise God, avoid them. The omnipotent,omnscient,omnipresent does not need them; nor do you.

[Gwilym Davies]

Except that there are a whole host of religious idealogues and thinkers who wield considerably more power than most of the above. The Archbishop of Canterbury is not an especially influential character - leaving aside preachers like Billy Graham and John Stott (who are both far more influential than Rowan Williams or any of his predecessors in the last forty years), Peter Akinola is a more powerful man than Williams. Remember, Rowan Williams leads a denomination in this country that, by and large, does not listen to him; he nominally leads a worldwide communion that, almost to the man, does not listen to him. Akinola - well, he leads a full third of 77 million Anglicans, and they respect him.

[Alistair]

What has religion to do with power?

As the Christian think-tank Ekklesia said this week about disestablishment of the C of E:

"Defending something unfair and anachronistic in the interests of self-preservation hardly constitutes a positive witness to a Gospel which is supposed to be about the power of love overcoming the love of power"

I would also be wary of saying the Catholic Church has 1.1bn adherents. Many millions of these are claimed as Catholic before they are old enough to know whether they are male or female, who their parents are, or what day of the week it is. What a way to build a following!

[benjamin alvares]

"POWER" Thats' what religion is all about. Kara Swart is absolutely right.If the respective gods are as intelligent are their powerful leaders claim them to be, then surely we can have direct access to god - no need for brokers (religions)

[Bruno]

Tom Cruise didn't make the list?

[jacki]

How is Arffin Muhamad on this list?

[Clive]

Where's Paisley???

[alan]

Sorry - but I wouldn't give twopence for the lot of them.

[Gareth]

Two mistakes (at least) Even according to RC (not "Church", which is not a religious organisation at all) dogma the Pope is not infallible per se, only when issuing certain types of message. Secondly, doesn't the Queen have more like 60million subjects? And it's "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", not "the Great Britain and Northern Ireland".

[Robert Brown]

Which one of these religious leaders has ever risen from the dead?

[Rob Mc Hardy]

Yona Metzgers idea for a religious united nations is an excellent idea if not only for showing a proper non confrontational example but also to discourage the damaging practice of most religions to teach that "the others" are wrong, irrelevent or worse still destined for damnation.
This common sense idea won't see the light of day, and if it does it will be a spineless hot air pot like the UN

[warren]

...and not an Orthodox Patriarch amongst them. I guess without the support of the Catholic Crusaders (plundering and destabilising its rival) the Turks would not have taken Byzantium and the Patriach of Constantinople would not now be a Turkish citizen.

[eddie]

Only one mediator between God and men THE MAN Christ Jesus. NO Christ,no God. Know Christ, know God.

[Bernard O'Callaghan]

What did you put the Jesuit General in for? The Jesuits are a declining force in the Catholic world. Powerful and influential in the past certainly, but now mostly men in their sixties in grey roll neck pullovers, and frequently heterodox with regard to Catholic teaching and worship.
Ever since they replaced their 4th vow of unconditional obedience to the papacy with a "preferential option for dissent" they have been on the wane. Opus Dei has partly taken their place, which is why they are so anti-Opus Dei.

[Sue]

I live in the United States and love your religion coverage. But I was baffled to see the Queen of England on your list. I understand her official position in relation to the Church of England, but I've never in my life thought of her as anything but a political figurehead. That said, I wish there were more women on this list. I'm an optimist, but find it discouraging that "powerful" religious leaders continue to be male. Perhaps if men were stripped of the top posts in religious and political institutions, we wouldn't be living in such a tumultuous world.

[Bernard O'Callaghan]

The only power any religious leaders have is the power of persuasion (except in Islamic countries where they may also have the power of fatwa and Shari'a.)

Usually their followers are free to leave and go elsewhere - more than can be said for us as citizens or subjects of our national governments. Theoretically we can emigrate if we don't like a government, but it's an immense step.

I wouldn't have included the Jesuit general. The Jesuits are now mostly a spent force of sixty and seventy year olds in roll-neck pullovers. Since they exchanged their 4th vow of special obedience to the Pope, for one of special dissent from Catholic doctrine, and indulgence in bizarre liturgical innovations, they have been in steep decline. The new religious movements and groups like Opus Dei have taken their place. The Jesuits show little eagerness to return to St Ignatius' true charism, and most traditionally-minded Catholic youngsters give them a wide berth these days.

[Jonathan]

Does it not show how far from the scriptures these "holy" men and their followers have come?The only Leader christians should have "is Christ"-Matthew 23:10.No christian should have a title showing they are a leader,Christ said not to be called Rabbi,Father or a leader at Matthew 23:6-10.All should be equal and brothers.Religion is the Bibles false friend once again.

[sheik yer'mami]

If the pope had any power he would have called for a complete stop and a reversal of Muhammedan immigration into Western countries.

Islam will destroy us if we don't destroy it.

[Mark]

The most powerful and the only religious leader who has the correct authority to do our Heavenly Father's work here on earth is Thomas S. Monson, 16th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His power comes from his personal righteousness and worthiness. He is the only true Prophet at the head of the ONLY TRUE CHURCH. Oh, as for "making this list" . . . it's only a title of man and not important at all. Even Harvard Divinity school now teaches about Mormonism. Think about it. Drop your preconceived notions and learn of our beliefs; if you do so with an open mind, you'll be quite surprised at the truth you'll find.

[Anthony]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (The Mormons) are not represented here. Aren't they a large player in the scene of world religion?

[Dave B]

Picking up on what Alistair before me said, counting everyone who was baptised isn't very accurate. I'm sure many have found, like me who am an atheist, you can't leave the Catholic Church. I've tried to get myself excommunicated with no success.

[rod]

JC didn't make the list, so, is this an admission he is dead?

[Andrew Richmond]

"Religion is man's most evil invention." Andy Richmond

[Eleanor]

Interesting how many of these leaders are such by position, title, tradition. Amma is different: (1) she holds no formal position in any established "church"; she is respected because of who she is, not what office she fills; (2) her "power" is soft: it is about love, and people responding to that, (3) she is a woman embodying motherliness. but DESPITE (or is it BECAUSE OF?) that, people flock to her. Maybe the formal religions need to learn from these facts and no longer reject women as full-fledged members and leaders.
But what one woman has done on her own makes you wonder whether the organizations are needed at all.