§ 104. Election and Installation of Bishops in the Present Day

6) The election and installation of bishops in the present day.

All three forms of installation mentioned in § 103 have been preserved into the present day.

1. In eight of the present autocephalous churches the diocesan bishops are appointed by the respective councils of bishops, and the sovereign confirms them, namely: in the Patriarchate of Constantinople the synod draws up a list of all those possessing the prescribed qualifications, then marks out from among them the three persons who would be most worthy, and from these three the members of the synod, without the patriarch, elect one by secret ballot, whom the patriarch then confirms as bishop. If the votes are evenly divided, the patriarch’s vote decides. Bishops are elected in the same way also in those metropolitanates subject to the Patriarch of Constantinople in which there are more than three diocesan bishops, the metropolitan confirming as bishop the one who received the majority of votes. The state authority takes note of the election and issues the relevant charter of recognition.[1] In the remaining three patriarchates the patriarchs together with the synod elect the bishops, and the state authority issues the charter of recognition.[2] In Russia the synod proposes three persons for the vacant diocesan see, and the sovereign appoints one of them;[3] the same holds also in Greece, where the synod proposes three persons and the sovereign chooses one of them.[4] In Serbia the council of bishops elects the bishop by general agreement and submits its choice to the sovereign for approval.[5] In the Metropolitanate of Karlovci the metropolitan proposes three persons to the synod, and the one who receives all the votes, once confirmed by the sovereign, remains elected.[6]

2. With the participation of representatives of the people, the diocesan bishops are elected in the following autonomous churches: in Romania the diocesan bishops are elected in the same way as the metropolitan-primate, that is, by an electoral assembly in which all the hierarchs and all Orthodox senators and deputies to the national assembly take part with a vote.[7] In the Bulgarian exarchate the bishop is elected by the diocesan council, composed of deputies of the clerical and lay estate of the widowed diocese: this council chooses two persons whom it judges most worthy of the episcopate and proposes them to the exarchal synod, which chooses one of the two proposed, and he, after confirmation by the state authority, becomes bishop.[8] The same is done in the Metropolitanate of Hermannstadt (Sibiu): the bishop is elected by the diocesan assembly, composed of 20 clerical and 40 lay deputies of the widowed diocese in question, and this assembly, under the chairmanship of the metropolitan’s delegate, or of the metropolitan himself should he happen to attend, elects one person by secret ballot, who is then proposed to the synod of bishops for canonical examination and for confirmation by the sovereign.[9] The same also in the Archbishopric of Cyprus: the diocesan bishops are elected by representatives of the people together with the clergy of the diocese concerned, are confirmed by the archbishop, and then receive the charter of recognition from the state authority.[10]

3. In the Metropolitanate of Bukovina and Dalmatia the diocesan bishops (of Dalmatia and of Boka Kotorska) are appointed by the Austrian emperor.[11] In Sinai[12] and in Montenegro there are none.[13]