Word: filaret
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Amazingly, there was no ethnic Russian in the race at all. Aleksy's two competitors, Metropolitans Vladimir of Rostov and Filaret of Kiev, are both natives of the Ukraine. The three nominees were elected by the Soviet Union's bishops from a list of all 75 of their eligible colleagues, then proposed to the full church council. The council rejected bids to add other candidates, then chose Aleksy in two secret ballots...
Vladimir, who ranked second in the bishops' nominations, followed Aleksy as administrator at patriarchal headquarters in Moscow and shares his moderate views. But it was highly significant that the delegates bypassed Filaret, a hard-liner who had served as acting head of the church since the death last month of Patriarch Pimen. Leader of the Kiev diocese since 1966, Filaret is more of a Ukrainian chauvinist than is Vladimir and, according to dissident priest Gleb Yakunin, is seen as "a KGB puppet." He was third in the bishops' vote...
...failure of Filaret to win election came as a relief both within and outside the Russian Orthodox Church. He displayed his conservative, stand-fast views before the election in a newspaper interview, contending that "it's naive to expect revolutionary changes in the church in comparison to those which took place after the election of Gorbachev." Moreover, notes Jane Ellis of England's Keston College, Filaret's election would have sent "the strongest possible anti-Catholic signal to the Vatican" just six months after Gorbachev visited the Pope. The Kiev prelate's hostility to Rome has greatly complicated the bitter...