Greek faithful waving the Greek flag outside Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher yesterday, after the election of Theophilos III, right, as new Patriarch of the Holy Land. (AP)
The Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem elected a new patriarch yesterday to replace Irineos I, who was sacked over an alleged land deal with Jews in East Jerusalem that angered Palestinians and sparked a church crisis.
Theophilos III was unanimously elected by the 14 permanent members of the Greek Orthodox church's Holy Synod. According to church sources, two Israeli officials from the Religious Affair Ministry's Christian desk attended the ceremony, despite the fact that the Israeli government has not yet decided what position it will take on the election of the new patriarch.
The election of a new patriarch follows the ousting of the previous patriarch, Irineos I, earlier this year. Elected in 2001, Irineos was linked to a series of scandals, the most serious of which was the alleged leasing of church property near Jerusalem's Jaffa Gate to Israelis.
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As a result, the governments of Greece and Jordan rescinded their approval of Irineos as patriarch. The Palestinian Authority quickly followed suit, leaving Israel under massive diplomatic pressure to recognize the new patriarch instead of Irineos.
A Palestinian ministerial commission said last month it had found no evidence that Irineos was involved in leasing church property to Jews. Irineos had refused to step down, blaming the affair on rivals who wanted to oust him. His refusal prompted the leaders of the world's Orthodox churches, which have 300 million followers worldwide, to vote in a synod held in Istanbul in May to stop recognizing him as patriarch.
Under church law, any new patriarch must be approved by the three governments under whose jurisdiction the church's flock lives.
Born in southern Greece in 1952, Theophilos arrived in the Holy Land in 1964 to study theology and was ordained a priest in 1970. In 1986, he became secretary general of the Holy Synod in charge of foreign relations.
Until two years ago, Theophilos was a fairly low-ranking cleric, serving as a archimandrate in Kafr Kana in the Galilee. Last December, he was appointed bishop and was put in charge of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He also served as the Greek Orthodox Church's representative in Moscow and then in the Persian Gulf; according to church sources, he was appointed to these positions to keep him away from the power struggles in Jerusalem. The sources say that a group of eight members of the Synod agreed earlier in the week to support Theophilos' candidacy, while the remaining six fell into line at yesterday's meeting.
Even yesterday morning, it was far from clear that the meeting and the election - called by bishops who opposed Irineos - would even go ahead. Irineos, whose whereabouts are currently unknown, sent a supporter to petition the Jerusalem District Court against the election.
Presiding judge Yosef Shapira rejected Irineos' claims, including his main argument - that the election is illegal since the Israeli government had not approved Irineos' ouster. Shapira sided with the attorney representing the church, who argued that the court has no jurisdiction over an issue that is purely internal.
Immediately after the court ruling, a preliminary group of 41 bishops, archimandrates and the married priests held a secret ballot for a successor to Irineos. Theophilos garnered 23 votes. His closest rival, Aristarchus, won 17 votes and a third candidate, Alexios, picked up the remaining vote. Ten other candidates received no vote. The next stage was a vote among the 14 members of the Synod, who unanimously elected Theophilos.
As new patriarch, Theophilos inherits a church that is heavily in debt - some estimates put the figure as high as tens of millions of shekels - and is plagued by internal power struggles.
The first item on his agenda will be the Jaffa Gate deal. Atalla Hana, a senior cleric at the Jerusalem church, said Theophilos "vowed yesterday and today before the Synod and the religious men of the church to return all the properties that were leased to Israelis."
Theophilos also apparently has support from clerics still loyal to Irineos, which could have helped to bolster his credentials as a compromise successor. Dozens of worshipers shouted "well deserved" when the Synod elected him patriarch in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Christianity's holiest shrine in Jerusalem.
"Our aim was to elect a patriarch who will be worthy and capable to help the patriarchate restore its prestige," said Archbishop Aristarchus, chief secretary of the patriarchate. "We feel we are stronger now to face and overcome more effectively the crisis we passed," he said.
"The flawless election ... puts an end to a long period of problems and uncertainty that threatened to undermine the authority of this institution," said Greece's Deputy Foreign Minister Panayiotis Skandalakis
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