Clergy Role

Ordained or consecrated positions within a tradition's clergy that a tradition can confer on many people at once, such as bishop, abbot, ayatollah and acharya, held for a term or for life rather than by unbroken personal succession from a single founder. The category is the larger of two ways this atlas classifies religious office, role versus lineage. Excludes lineage offices such as the papacy or the Dalai Lama, where the office's authority rests on being the recognized successor in an unbroken chain, grouped separately.