The leading official of the Orthodox church in Zimbabwe, Metropolitan Theodoros, has been elected Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria, becoming the spiritual leader of hundreds of thousands of Greek Orthodox faithful in Africa.
He succeeds Patriarch Petros, who died last month with 16 other people when a helicopter taking his entourage to the Mount Athos monastic community crashed into the Aegean Sea.
The 50-year old Theodoros was born on the Island of Crete. He became priest in 1978.
In 1997 he was elected Metropolitan of Cameroon, followed by his election as the Metropolitan of Zimbabwe in 2002.