Open Questions

Open Alexandrian Wicca

Why It Is Open Religious landscape surveys count Wiccans and Pagans as one combined category, and small, private, initiatory covens are not registered anywhere that would let a researcher isolate the Alexandrian line from other Wiccan traditions.

What Would Settle It A study that surveyed self-identified Wiccans on which initiatory lineage, if any, they belong to, of the kind Pagan studies scholars have occasionally run for specific regions, would let a tradition-specific estimate be drawn where only a combined one exists today.

Question posed in The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, Ronald Hutton.

Open Anabaptism

Why It Is Open Anabaptism is a theological family rather than a single organized denomination; its living members already appear in the membership records of its daughter bodies, so no source totals them as one population without risking double counting.

What Would Settle It A scholarly survey that explicitly sums the reported membership of every living Anabaptist-descended body on a stated date, correcting for any overlap between them, would give the family a real combined figure comparable to a single denomination's.

Question posed in The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised edition, F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.).

Open Basilideans

Why It Is Open No ancient source that describes Basilidean teaching, all of them hostile heresiological writers rather than the school's own records, gives any figure or even a qualitative sense of how many people followed it.

What Would Settle It New papyrological or epigraphic evidence from Roman Egypt naming Basilidean adherents or congregations, of the kind that has occasionally surfaced for other early Christian and Gnostic groups, would be the only realistic path to an actual estimate.

Question posed in What Is Gnosticism?, Karen L. King.

Open Breslov Hasidism

Why It Is Open Breslov has no central membership roll, so the scholarly estimate of its committed core is a researcher's reading of community size rather than a dated census, and the sources reporting it do not state the year the underlying fieldwork or count was made.

What Would Settle It A published methodology note from the estimate's original researcher, or a fresh dated count of registered Breslov institutions and their affiliated households, would anchor the figure to an actual year.

Question posed in The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, Gershon David Hundert (ed.).

Open Church of Satan

Why It Is Open The organization has treated withholding a precise membership figure as deliberate policy since its founding, and no outside demographic survey counts organized Satanists as a category distinct from the wider religiously unaffiliated population.

What Would Settle It A survey instrument that asked specifically about affiliation with the Church of Satan, fielded independently of the organization itself, would be the only way to move past both the organization's own silence and the guesswork that fills it.

Question posed in Church of Satan (Wikipedia), Wikipedia contributors.

Open Dianic Wicca

Why It Is Open Religious landscape surveys count Wiccans and Pagans as one combined category, and small, often women-only covens outside any central registry leave no record a researcher could use to isolate the Dianic line from other Wiccan traditions.

What Would Settle It A study that surveyed self-identified Wiccans on which lineage or current, if any, they follow, of the kind Pagan studies scholars have occasionally run for specific regions, would let a tradition-specific estimate replace the combined figure in circulation today.

Question posed in Dianic Wicca (Wikipedia), Wikipedia contributors.

Open Dragon Gate

Why It Is Open China's official Daoist registration counts ordained monastics through the China Daoist Association and individual monasteries, not by which of Quanzhen's lineages a monastic was ordained into, so Dragon Gate clergy are never broken out from the wider Quanzhen or Zhengyi totals.

What Would Settle It A published survey of ordination records naming lineage affiliation across China's registered Daoist monasteries, of the kind scholars of contemporary Daoism have occasionally attempted for individual monasteries, would let a lineage-specific figure be drawn where only a combined one exists today.

Question posed in Daoism Handbook, Livia Kohn (ed.).

Open Eclectic Solitary Wicca

Why It Is Open Solitary practice leaves no coven roll, initiation record or central registry by design, and religious landscape surveys count Wiccans and Pagans as one combined category rather than separating solitary eclectic practice from initiatory lineages.

What Would Settle It A large-scale self-identification survey that asked Wiccans specifically whether they practice solitary and eclectically, rather than within an initiatory lineage, would let a real estimate be drawn where only a combined Wiccan/Pagan figure exists today.

Question posed in Eclectic Wicca (Wikipedia), Wikipedia contributors.

Open Feri Tradition

Why It Is Open Feri passes from teacher to student through small covens and houses with no central registry, and general surveys of American Paganism count Wiccans and Pagans as one combined category without separating this smaller initiatory current from the larger traditions around it.

What Would Settle It A survey that asked self-identified witches or Pagans specifically which initiatory lineage, if any, they belong to would let a Feri-specific figure be drawn where only a combined estimate exists today.

Question posed in Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America, Chas S. Clifton.

Open Folk Shinto

Why It Is Open Folk Shinto names an uncodified stratum of household and local custom rather than an organization anyone joins, with no shrine registry or denominational rolls of the kind Shrine Shinto and Sect Shinto both keep, so no demographic source counts its practitioners apart from the general population.

What Would Settle It A household practice survey that asked specifically about unaffiliated local and seasonal kami observance, rather than about formal religious affiliation, would be the only way to estimate a population that institutional records cannot capture by design.

Question posed in Folk Shinto (Encyclopaedia Britannica), The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Open Native American Religion

Why It Is Open This entry aggregates hundreds of distinct nations whose access rules range from fully open to strictly closed, so no single status value on the umbrella entity can be honest. A general source can show that variation exists but cannot resolve any one nation's specific rule.

What Would Settle It Recording closed-practice-status individually on each nation's own tradition entity, citing that nation's own statement or a specific scholarly or legal source, the way this has already been done for the Hopi, Taos Pueblo, Warlpiri, Arrernte and Haudenosaunee Longhouse traditions and the Native American Church.

Question posed in Wikipedia, Native American Church (source), Wikipedia contributors.

Open Warburg Institute

Why It Is Open The Institute's own Annual Review does publish an Annual Accounts page, but an attempt to read a total income or net assets figure from its multi column table did not survive text extraction with confidence.

What Would Settle It A visual read of page 32 of the Warburg Institute Annual Review 2022-2023 PDF, or a cleaner text or HTML rendition of the same accounts table.

Question posed in Warburg Institute Annual Review 2022-2023, Bill Sherman (Director).

Open Trappists (Cistercians of the Strict Observance)

Why It Is Open Every US Trappist abbey checked (New Melleray, Gethsemani, Mepkin, Holy Cross Berryville, New Clairvaux, Genesee, and both Assumption abbeys) is IRS-recognized as a church and files no public Form 990; only occasional unrelated-business-income Form 990-T filings exist, with no extracted figures, and the worldwide order publishes nothing consolidated.

What Would Settle It A voluntarily published audited annual statement from a named abbey, or a Form 990 from a separately incorporated commercial arm such as Trappist Caskets or Gethsemani Farms, if one is filed apart from the church-exempt abbey corporation.

Expertise Needed Nonprofit financial research and Catholic religious-institute administration.

Question posed in Corporation of New Melleray, Nonprofit Explorer (ProPublica).

Open Redemptorists (Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer)

Why It Is Open US Redemptorist provinces are IRS church-exempt and file no public Form 990, the worldwide Congregation publishes no consolidated accounts, and the only Redemptorist-founded US filer located, the Redemptorist Social Services Center in Kansas City, is a single local agency, today describing itself as nonsectarian, whose figures do not represent the order.

What Would Settle It A province-level voluntarily published audited statement, or a disclosure regime covering the finances of Catholic religious congregations.

Expertise Needed Nonprofit financial research and Catholic religious-institute administration.

Question posed in Redemptorist Social Services Center, Nonprofit Explorer (ProPublica).

Open Sisters of Mercy

Why It Is Open The Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas is IRS church-exempt with no institute-level Form 990, its investment arm Mercy Investment Services surfaces no public filing, and only individual sponsored ministries file their own returns, none of which represents the institute as a whole.

What Would Settle It An institute-level voluntarily published audited statement, or a consolidated disclosure covering the sponsored ministries of the Sisters of Mercy.

Expertise Needed Nonprofit financial research and Catholic religious-institute administration.

Question posed in Sisters of Mercy Urgent Care Inc, Nonprofit Explorer (ProPublica).

Open Barna Group

Why It Is Open Barna Group is a privately held for-profit research company with no filing obligation and no voluntary financial disclosure; third-party revenue estimates circulate from company-data aggregators but rest on no disclosed figure and no stated methodology.

What Would Settle It A voluntary disclosure by the company itself, an annual report or a press statement carrying real figures.

Expertise Needed Financial journalism with primary-source access to the company.

Question posed in New Barna Research Debuts (CBA, The Association for Christian Retail).

Open Shwedagon Pagoda

Why It Is Open Gold-tonnage claims for the pagoda circulating in travel journalism range roughly tenfold, six to over sixty tons, and a widely repeated three billion dollar figure for the gem-crowned finial traces to no identifiable primary source or methodology.

What Would Settle It A published inventory or valuation from the Board of Trustees of Shwedagon Pagoda itself, or an independent appraisal by a body with access to weigh and assess the gold and gems in place.

Expertise Needed Cultural heritage appraisal and Myanmar religious-trust administration, and financial journalism with primary-source access.

Question posed in Cash Donations Rising for Myanmar Pagodas: Religion Minister (The Irrawaddy).

Open Wat Phra Kaew and the Emerald Buddha

Why It Is Open No source, credible or otherwise, attempts a monetary figure for the statue or the temple building specifically. Only the far broader Crown Property Bureau, of which the temple is one holding among many, has drawn outside estimates, and those cannot be read back onto the temple itself.

What Would Settle It A statement from the Bureau of the Royal Household or Crown Property Bureau isolating a value or insurance figure for the Emerald Buddha or Wat Phra Kaew specifically, apart from aggregate crown-property estimates.

Expertise Needed Thai royal and crown-property administration, and cultural heritage appraisal.

Question posed in Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Google Arts & Culture).

Open Dwarkadhish Temple, Dwarka

Why It Is Open The temples own Wikipedia article and the Devbhumi Dwarka district government tourism page both give no administering body and no financial information. Searches repeatedly surface unrelated organisations sharing similar names, a diaspora temple in Parlin, New Jersey among them, which risk misattribution if not held apart.

What Would Settle It Identification of the current legal trust or committee administering the Dwarka temple, ideally via a Gujarat state devasthan or trust-registration record naming it directly.

Expertise Needed Gujarat temple-trust and charity-law administration.

Question posed in Dwarkadhish Temple (District Devbhumi Dwarka, Government of Gujarat).

Open Trinity Lavra of St Sergius

Why It Is Open The monastery is well documented as historically one of Russias wealthiest landowners through the 19th century, but no source addressing its finances since its 1945 reopening to the Church was located.

What Would Settle It A published statement from the Lavra administration or the Moscow Patriarchate naming any income, endowment or budget figure, or scholarly research into post-Soviet Russian Orthodox monastic finances.

Expertise Needed Russian Orthodox Church administration and post-Soviet religious economics.

Question posed in Trinity St. Sergius Monastery (David B. Miller, Encyclopedia of Russian History, via Encyclopedia.com), David B. Miller.