ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, Oct 24 (AFP) - The Greek Orthodox Church's new Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa, Theordore II, was enthroned on Sunday in this coastal city in northern Egypt.
Greek President Costis Stefanopoulos attended the ceremony, which took place at the seat of Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, one of the branches of Eastern Orthodoxy.
Some 2,000 Orthodox worshippers also attended the enthronement at the Al-Bishara Church in Alexandria's central Raml neighbourhood. Another 2,000 crowded the streets around the church.
Theodore II, who also has the title of pope, succeeds Petros VII, who died last month with 16 other people in a Greek army helicopter crash off Mount Athos in northeastern Greece.
Aged 50, he becomes the second most senior figure in the Orthodox hierarchy after Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople (Istanbul).
He was chosen on October 9 by a college made up of the 13 metropolitans of the Holy synod of the patriarchy of Alexandria.
Christian Coptic Pope Shenuda III, Alexandria Governor Abdul Salam al-Mahgub, as well as Vatican representatives, attended the ceremony during which Theodore II was crowned and received the patriarchal crosier.
There are an estimated 50,000 Greek Orthodox in Egypt, whose total population is over 70 million.
Theodore was born on the island of Crete in 1954 and consecrated a deacon in 1975 and a bishop in 1978. He studied theology at the University of Salonika in northern Greece and worked for the archbishop of Sfakia in Crete before leaving Greece in 1985 to serve the patriarchate of Alexandria.
He was elected metropolitan of Cameroon in 1997 and of Zimbabwe in 2002.
10/24/2004 12:03 GMT - AFP