The Russian Orthodox Church council convened Tuesday and voted in Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad as successor to the late Patriarch Alexy II, according to an election spokesman.
After the death of Patriarch Alexiy II, the Russian Orthodox Church appointed the popular archbishop Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad as acting head on Saturday.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexiy II, has died. The 79-year-old outspoken patriarch had led the world's biggest Orthodox church since 1990, presiding over a major religious revival following the collapse of the USSR.
Greek Orthodox and Armenian worshipers traded blows on Sunday in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Christian denominations jealously protect their hold over areas of the traditional site of Jesus' crucifixion.
The clergy of the Romanian Orthodox Church have created the first labour union of priests, with plenty of grievances toward the government and the church's Patriarchy. (Report: M.Bran)
Members of a doomsday sect living in a cave since November in expectation of the end of the world are unlikely to emerge on Orthodox Easter, a regional official said according to news agency Interfax. (Report: S.Silke
