Patriarch Porfirije (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
The new head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Porfirije, was enthroned in a prayer ceremony at Belgrade's Cathedral Church on Feb. 19.
With the enthronement the new patriarch was vested with all the rights and duties defined by canon and the Church Constitution.
In his first statement after he was picked to head the Church in a Feb. 18 Synod meeting at the Church of St Sava, Porfirije asked everyone to pray for him.
Porfirije succeeds Patriarch Irinej, who died of COVID-19 three months ago, which is the deadline for choosing a new Church head.
Serbian state officials and numerous politicians and public figures in the country and abroad have sent congratulations to the new patriarch, including the U.S. state department and embassy in Belgrade.
According to reports in the world's wire services, the new patriarch is close to the Serbian regime and was enthroned at a time when Serbia and Kosovo are under pressure from U.S. President Joseph Biden and the European Union to resume the halted dialog on normalization of relations.
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