H. H. Serbian Patriarch +I R I N E J

Friday, January 22, 2010 - 7:20 A.M.  

The bells at Belgrade's Cathedral Church rang out at about 2.20pm Friday, to announce that Bishop Irinej of Nis was elected the 45th patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

The newly elected head of church said that his choice was the will of God and the will of the Holy Assembly of Bishops.

"For this honorable and difficult duty I was elected with the help of brothers - bishops - with whom I will carry the burden and all the problems together," broadcaster RTS quoted the new patriarch as saying immediately after the election. 

After four hours of voting, the new head of the church was elected by a random picking of a paper with the name of one of the three candidates who won most support of the 37 bishops voting. Besides the newly elected patriarch, Metropolitan Amfilohije and Bishop Irinej of Backa were also among the last three after the initial vote. Archimandrite Gavrilo from Lepavina monastery in Croatia was the one who pulled the patriarch's name out and was the first to see who would take the post.

The new patriarch is expected to restore the church's shaken unity and also to decide about episcopates. Important tasks concern the church in Macedonia and efforts to return church property in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, as well as continuing dialogue with all religious communities.

Patriarch Irinej Gavrilovic was born in 1930 in a village near the town of Cacak, central Serbia and became bishop of Nis in 1975.