How does the idea of hierarchy reconcile with the notion of a "heaven on earth," the foundational axis of the divine liturgy? It is well known that Orthodox Christianity is grounded in the concept of hierarchy. Dogmatic theology posits a hierarchy between God, who holds the truth, and human beings, who can aspire at most to orthopraxy—the pursuit of their salvation through union with God (theosis). Ecclesiology demands the clergy an absolute obedience to one's superior and a complex hierarchical order among and between those ordained as priests and among those who have received monastic tonsure. One of the elements disrupting this hierarchical order is charisma, which discends through divine grace on certain individuals—often not the archbishop, but rather the starets in the monastery or the talented parish confessor—endowed with profound devotion yet also graced by a divine logic that transcends human reasoning. By engaging ethnographic material on contemporary Romanian Orthodoxy in dialogue with classic works of political anthropology that challenge universalist Western conceptions of power (Pierre Clastres, David Graeber), this presentation adopts a transcultural and comparative perspective to reflect on the relationship between discourse, speech and authority. It does not posit oral discourse as antithetical to hierarchy. If institutional authority confers the privilege of having an audience and being obeyed, the ability to articulate a compelling discourse, by contrast, is a talent that enables one to claim this privilege without institutional power backing it. In counterpoint to other Orthodox mechanisms reproducing order and conformity, such as "hierarchy," "patriarchate," and "tradition," charisma intended as the ability to speak powerfully may disrupt presumptive correlations between power, authority, and coercion.