The Russian Orthodox Church has enthroned its new head, Patriarch Kirill, in a ceremony at a Moscow cathedral attended by political leaders including President Dmitry Medvedev. "Axios! Axios! Axios!" an audience of senior bishops chanted in Christ the Saviour Cathedral, intoning the Greek word for "he is worthy" three times and thus formally enthroning Kirill as the new patriarch.
Hundreds crowded into the cathedral for the ceremony, the first enthronement of a new Russian Orthodox patriarch since Soviet times when the Church was brutally oppressed by the officially atheist government.
Mr Medvedev attended the ceremony along with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in a sign of how the Church's relationship with the state has changed radically since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Others in attendance included Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin and representatives of western churches including the Roman Catholic Church.
After a liturgy filled with singing and chanting of Bible verses, Kirill was presented with attributes of his new post including his mitre and a dark blue robe.
Potential headaches
The enthronement came five days after the 62-year-old Kirill was elected patriarch by a Church Council including bishops, priests and laymen. The Church's last leader, Patriarch Alexy II, died in December.
Kirill is seen by experts as a forceful traditionalist who believes that the Church should play a strong role in society and who could create headaches for Russia's political leaders with his outspoken views.
He previously led the Church's foreign relations department, a position that allowed him to meet clerics from Western churches including Pope Benedict XVI, and some experts say he may help improve strained ties with the Vatican.
Earlier known as Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, he is well known to Russians through the media, having hosted a weekly television show called "Words of a Pastor."
He was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) into a dissenting religious family, with a priest grandfather who spent much of his life imprisoned in Russia's far north during the rule of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
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(Source: ABCN)