Nearly 2,500 Coptic public officials, MPs, journalists and local councillors took partin the vote


The Coptic Orthodox church has chosen a new pope, Bishop Tawadros, to lead the Middle East's biggest Christian community.

In a sumptuous ritual filled with prayer, chants and incense on Sunday at Abbasiya cathedral in Cairo, the 60-year-old bishop's name was picked by a blindfolded child from a glass bowl in which the names of two other candidates had also been placed.

Tawadros, of the Nile Delta province of Beheira, replaces Pope Shenouda III who led the church for four decades until he died in March aged 88.

Many Copts will look to the new pope to ensurethat the voice of Christians, who have long complained of discrimination in Egypt, are heard.

Acting Pope Pachomios laid on Sunday the three names, already selected in a limited votein church last week, in plastic balls inside the chalice before starting Mass.

He selected on Saturday 12 altar boys betweenthe ages of five and eight, one of whom was ordered to pick the name during Sunday's ceremony.

Tawadros will be the 118th pope in a line dating back to the origins of Christianity and to Saint Mark, the apostle and author of one of the four Gospels, who brought the new faith to Egypt.

Nearly 2,500 Coptic public officials, MPs, journalists and local councillors took part in the vote.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/11/201211410426264481.html

Congratulations to the egyptian coptic community.Successor to the influential early church of alexandria.