Orthodoxy: Descendant of St. Andrew

Pope Paul VI is the 261st successor of St. Peter as Bishop of Rome; Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople is the 261st successor of St. Andrew, legendary founder of the church there. Once the two sees were equal in strength and power. Now, the Pope is infallible ruler of 558 million Roman Catholics. Athenagoras is somewhat grudgingly acknowledged as primate by the other patriarchates and churches of Orthodoxy (total membership: perhaps 150 million), but he exerts direct jurisdiction over scarcely 2,000,000 people, mainly in Turkey, the Dodecanese Islands and the U.S.

Nonetheless, tall (6 ft. 4 in.) Patriarch Athenagoras, a...