OrthodoxWiki:Style Manual (Succession boxes)

This page is an official policy on OrthodoxWiki. It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that all users should follow. If you are part of the administration, please feel free to update this page as needed, but make sure that changes you make to this policy really do reflect OrthodoxWiki's perspective before you make them.

Succession boxes, used especially for marking the succession of bishops, should conform to the following style.

Templates

The templates used for succession boxes are:

• Template:start box
• Template:succession
• Template:end box

Fields in Template:succession

Before

The before field refers to the office holder who held that title immediately before the subject of the article, even if there were intervening years between title holders. If a bishop, the visible portion of the link should be rendered simple Firstname (Surname), including the ordinal (e.g., Firstname IV (Surname)). If the surname is unknown, omit it.

The linked name should be rendered with the standard Firstname (Surname) of See style, including the ordinal (e.g., Firstname IV (Surname) of See), if any.

Links may be included if articles either already exist or are being suggested for future inclusion. If the name is linked, the full article name should begin the link, while the visible portion should be the short version (e.g., [[Firstname IV (Surname) of See|Firstname IV (Surname)]]).

If, however, the previous office holder is a saint, the name with link should be rendered thus: St. [[Firstname of Place]]. (The of Place designation may be replaced by whatever is standard for that saint's name, e.g. the Merciful.)

If the previous office holder is unknown, denote this with a question mark: ? If there was no previous office holder, denote this with a dash: — (rendered with this code: —).

Title

The title field denotes the highest level of title held by the subject during the succession in question. It may include a link to an article about the see, if one exists. If the see is in a geographic area where there are multiple, overlapping jurisdictions (e.g., the United States), then the jurisdiction should be included with a link by including <br>([[Full jurisdiction link|Jurisdiction]]) after the title. Try to use as shortened a name as is possible for the second half of the link (e.g., [[Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia|ROCOR]] or [[Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, New Zealand, and All Oceania|Antiochian]]).

Years

The years field denotes the years the subject held the office, e.g. 1776-1789.

After

The style for the after field is essentially the same as the before field, but refers instead to the next person who held the office after the article's subject.

Coding

Single succession

 {{start box}}
 {{succession|
 before=[[Firstname (Surname) of See|Firstname (Surname)]]|
 title=Title|
 years=Start-End|
 after=[[Firstname (Surname) of See|Firstname (Surname)]]}}
 {{end box}}

Multiple successions

If the subject held multiple offices, include multiple separate succession templates between single start box and end box templates.

 {{start box}}
 {{succession|
 before=[[Firstname (Surname) of See|Firstname (Surname)]]|
 title=Title|
 years=Start-End|
 after=[[Firstname (Surname) of See|Firstname (Surname)]]}}
 {{succession|
 before=[[Firstname (Surname) of See|Firstname (Surname)]]|
 title=Title|
 years=Start-End|
 after=[[Firstname (Surname) of See|Firstname (Surname)]]}}
 {{succession|
 before=[[Firstname (Surname) of See|Firstname (Surname)]]|
 title=Title|
 years=Start-End|
 after=[[Firstname (Surname) of See|Firstname (Surname)]]}}
 {{end box}}

Example results

The following example is from the succession of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I (Archontonis) of Constantinople:

Succession box: Style Manual (Succession boxes)
Preceded by: Iakovos	Metropolitan of Philadelphia 1973-1990	Succeeded by: Meliton (Karas)
Preceded by: Meliton (Hadjis)	Metropolitan of Chalcedon 1990-1991	Succeeded by: Joachim (Neradjoulis)
Preceded by: Demetrius I (Papadopoulos)	Patriarch of Constantinople 1991-present	Succeeded by: —

Help with box

Notes

• Do not include information about whether the other holders of the office had a different title, as it unnecessarily clutters up what should be a brief table at the bottom of an article. The articles about those people will cover their titles.
• In general, do not include any other information in the succession boxes other than what is

covered in this section of the Style Manual.

• Do not add any extra markup (e.g., italics, bolding), as this may break the coding of the template.

See also

• OrthodoxWiki:Style Manual
• OrthodoxWiki:Style Manual (People)