Irineos, The Most Blessed Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and all Palestine. Photo: AP

Amid cries of "axios" (he is worthy), Metropolitan Irineos, one of the candidates rejected by the Israeli government a month ago, was elected Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem in a colorful ceremony in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Irineos, who was born in Samos in 1939, came to Jerusalem in 1953 and studied at the Greek Orthodox Seminary on Mt. Zion. Since 1972, Irineos, Metropolitan of Ieropolis, had served as the Jerusalem Church's representative in Athens, Greece.

According to some observers, it was because of this connection with the Greek government, which in turn has strong ties with the Arab world, that he was one of the candidates for the post rejected by the Israeli Prime Minister's Office.

According to a long-standing rule, the temporal authority must approve the candidates. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem had sent the list of candidates to Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, as well as Israel.

Both Jordan and the PA had approved the entire list, but Israel, after a long delay, disqualified five of the 15. After one of the candidates petitioned the High Court of Justice, the government retracted and approved the entire list.

In yesterday's election, the 50 members of the Greek Orthodox Council first met in the Patriarchate and chose three of the 15 candidates, naming Metropolitan Timothy, the secretary of the Synod, and Metropolitan Cornelios, who was holding administrative powers since the death of the late Patriarch Diodoros.

Only the 17 members of the Holy Synod, the higher clergy, participated in the final vote, which took place in the altar of the ancient Church of the Holy Sepulcher opposite the tomb of Jesus. Monks and priests, peering around the iconostasis behind which the balloting took place, shouted out the count to the crowd waiting in the main part of the church as the ballots were counted. On hearing that Irineos had received seven of the 17 votes, with the other two candidates splitting the other votes, the crowd cheered.

Metropolitan Irineos has become the 140th Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem. His official title will be "His Beatitude, The Most Blessed Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and all Palestine".