MOSCOW, December 10 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Orthodox Church's regional council will gather on January 27-29 to elect a new patriarch, the Church's interim leader said on Wednesday.
Patriarch Alexy II died of heart failure aged 79 last Friday after leading the Church for more than 18 years, overseeing a revival of faith in post-Soviet Russia. He was buried on Tuesday after a grand ceremony attended by thousands of people, political and religious leaders from Russia and abroad.
Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad told reporters: "A meeting of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church will open on January 27 and continue on January 28 and 29. The new patriarch will be enthroned on February 1."
The Council was earlier reported to convene within the next six months.
He said the meeting of the Council, which comprises all the bishops, representatives of the clergy and laypersons, would be preceded by a two-day meeting of the Bishops' Council, another power body in the Church.
The Moscow Patriarchy said some 700 people would take part in the election.
Kirill, 62, was elected interim leader the day after Alexy's death, and is seen as his most likely successor.
Kirill is well-known to the public in Russia through his weekly television program Pastor's Word. As head of the Church's foreign relations department, he has worked to rebuild ties with other churches across the world.
Metropolitan Kliment of Kaluga and Borovsk, 59, the chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchy - the church equivalent of a presidential chief-of-staff - is also seen as a possible contender.
In his tribute to Alexy II at the funeral service on Tuesday, Metropolitan Kirill, said: "Today his Holiness, standing before the face of God, can say that he left us with a different Church: no longer powerless and weak."
"The Church is with its people... Millions of people have realized that without God and his truth, there can be no human truth."
