Copts "Enthrone" New Pope

(pic from Al Jazeera article)

Yesterday, the Coptic (Egyptian Orthodox Christians) believers celebrated the "enthroning" of their new Pope, Pope Tawadros II.

This Alarabiya article has a video clip of the four hour enthronement ceremony.

Formerly Bishop Tawadros, the new Pope had been serving the Beheira province of Egypt.  Then Bishop Tawadros was among five candidates presented for vote by 2,000 members of the Coptic Church on October 29; as one of the top three vote recipients, Bishop Tawadros' name was written on a piece of paper and placed within a box on the altar at St. Mark's Cathedral in Cairo.

Yesterday, as you can see from this brief video clip, a blind-folded altar boy selected from the three pieces of paper.  

Pope Tawadros II replaces the leadership of Pope Shenouda III who died in March.  Pope Tawadros enters this leadership role at a unique and tumultuous time in Egyptian history; the day before this installation, it was announced that the three Coptic representatives resigned from the Constituent Assembly.  That assembly was charged with the drafting of the new Constitution, but "secular" and moderate Muslim leaders alike have been withdrawing from the leadership in the last week with complaints of being silenced by the Islamist majority.

(I hope to write more on this later this week).

But for now...
I've appreciated the process the Copts have of selecting this senior leadership.  There's the vetting process of selecting qualified candidates, which are then submitted to a vote (though not by all) to further narrow the field in a process of ratification.  Then. there's the unpredictability of "casting lots", along with the symbolism of a child's innocence, and even the blindfold.

What about you...

• Do you think western churches would dare to select their leadership by such a process?
• Do you see this process as one of "faith" through which there exists the greater possibility of Spirit-determination rather than majority-determination?
• Do you know of another leadership selection process by a faith group that is different from the norm of majority election or ratification?