Serbian Orthodox Church Elects New Patriarch

Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church have elected a new leader.

Eighty-year-old Bishop Irinej Gavrilovic is Serbia's 45th patriarch and the successor to Patriarch Pavle, who died last November at the age of 95.

Gavrilovic is seen as being open to modernization at a time Serbia is seeking a future with the European Union.

The vote was conducted by the church's highest body, the Holy Assembly of Bishops.

According to the system, each member of the Holy Assembly of Bishops chooses three preferred names from the list of potential candidates. Any names selected by more than half the assembly members then move to a short list limited to three candidates.

Once the list is in hand, the names of the final three candidates are put in three unmarked, sealed envelopes and placed inside a Bible.

Following prayers, a monk selected by the assembly then takes the three envelopes from the Bible, selects one at random, and gives it to the presiding bishop, who announces the name of the new patriarch.

The so-called apostolic vote was introduced in 1967 to prevent Yugoslavia's secular authorities from meddling in church affairs. Church leaders said it was the Holy Spirit that guided the monk in selecting a final envelope, thereby removing the process of all human interference.

The previous patriarch, Pavle, died in November following a long illness at the age of 95. He had headed the church for almost 20 years, a period that included the ethnic wars of the 1990s, which accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia.

He spent his final two years incapacitated in a hospital and had asked to be relieved of his duties, but the bishops had been unable to agree on a successor amid feuds between hard-liners and reformists.

The Serbian Orthodox Church is the second-oldest Slavic Orthodox Church in the world and the westernmost Eastern church in Europe. It is believed to have between 7 million and 14 million followers, located primarily in the republics of the former Yugoslavia.