Religious leader symbolically lists three elements and start of another (5)
I believe the answer is:
calif
'symbolically lists three elements and start of another' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'religious leader' is the wordplay.
'religious' becomes 'cali' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'leader' becomes 'f' (I have seen 'German leader ' mean 'f' so perhaps 'leader' could also mean 'f').
'cali'+'f'='CALIF'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for calif that I've seen before include "Foreign ruler" , "sultan" , "California (abbrev.)" , "eastern ruler" , "Western state briefly" .)