Election of Coptic Pope and question about election of hierarchs

[DL82]

Firstly, blessings and congratulations to any Copts on this board on the election of HH Theodore II. Many years.

Secondly, many press reports focused on the process of election by a blindfolded child drawing lots (doubtless after careful consideration of all the candidates whose names were offered). This got me to thinking - are there any similarly unusual processes for appointing bishops, patriarchs and other leaders in the Eastern Churches in communion with Rome?

Finally, I started to think of the bizarre array of electoral practices common in Europe before the Council of Trent, bishops appointed by kings, monasteries, orders of knights, etc. At that time, the Pope still retained a veto, but this was only exercised by exception, not by rule. I know the same is true now of Papal confirmations of appointments by synods in some Eastern Churches - the Pope can say no, but is expected not to. I wonder if the concerns many Orthodox have about the universal jurisdiction claimed by the Holy Father is not so much about the claim, which can be evidenced early in Church history, but in the normative use of that claim (the Pope is the normal first and last word on the appointment of every Catholic bishop, although this was not always so).

Anyway, just some ramblings. May God bless the Copts.

Domine, ut unum sint.

 

[dzheremi]

Firstly, blessings and congratulations to any Copts on this board on the election of HH Theodore II. Many years.

Secondly, many press reports focused on the process of election by a blindfolded child drawing lots (doubtless after careful consideration of all the candidates whose names were offered). This got me to thinking - are there any similarly unusual processes for appointing bishops, patriarchs and other leaders in the Eastern Churches in communion with Rome?

The casting of lots is really not all that unusual, broadly speaking (e.g., it is found in the Bible, and is not a Coptic-specific phenomenon), though it is certainly not the norm historically. It has happened on occasion in the Eastern Orthodox Church (see: Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow). However it was only recently established as the normative way of selection in the Coptic Orthodox Church, and for that reason many people have argued that it should be abolished. Following earlier controversies in the 1920s, bylaws were adopted in 1957 that regulate the election process. These bylaws are actually not all that popular, and the locum tenens, HE Metropolitan Pakhomious, asked that all candidates to the papacy confirm in writing that they will work during the first year of their papacy on amending the bylaws to something more agreeable to everybody (mainly restrictions on who can vote).