Specifically, the "Patriarch and Pope of Alexandria
and all Africa".
Helicopter crash kills Alexandria Patriarch, Australian
Patriarch of Alexandria Peter VII, who is the second most senior figure in the Greek Orthodox Church, has been killed along with an Australian and 15 others in a helicopter crash in the Aegean Sea.
The Patriarch is the spiritual leader of Greek Orthodox Christians in Africa.
He had been heading to the Mount Athos monastery in northern Greece in an army helicopter when the aircraft disappeared from radar screens.
Military ships and planes launched a rescue operation and found wreckage and bodies in the water 5.5 nautical miles off the Halkidiki peninsula, where Mount Athos is located.
The Greek Government confirms the death of the 55-year-old.
Government spokesman Theordore Roussopoulos says the death is a "great loss for Orthodoxy and Hellenism".
He pays tribute to the cleric's "brilliant humanitarian work in Africa".
Monsignor Christodoulos, who is the head of the Greek Orthodox Church, spoke of his "great pain" following the accident.
Sixteen other people were on board the Greek Army Chinook helicopter, including the Patriarch's brother, several Alexandrian and other Orthodox clerics and five crew members.
The Greek Foreign Ministry says Australian Bishop Nektarios of Madagascar is also among the dead.
Greek Defence Minister Spilios Spiliotopoulos says rescuers are still recovering bodies from the sea among the helicopter debris.
A ship specialised in under-water searches would arrive at the crash site on Sunday.
A military source says the crash is almost certainly accidental in nature, but that its cause is still unknown.
The patriarch had been on his way to make his first official visit to the semi-autonomous monastic republic of Mount Athos, a centre of Eastern Orthodoxy, since his appointment in 1997.
Peter VII has been greatly respected for his work on improving Orthodox relations with the Coptic and Roman Catholic churches, as well as for his many humanitarian commitments in Africa.
A speaker of Arabic and English, he held a variety of positions in the Orthodox Church of Alexandria and across Africa before becoming patriarch.
Born in Cyprus on September 3, 1949, Peter entered a seminary at the age of 12.
Following theological studies in Greece, joined the Alexandrian church in Cairo in 1970.
In 1980, he took up office in Johannesburg, followed by Cameroon and West Africa in 1994.
"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."
With respect, "Pope of Alexandria and all Africa" is part of his title.
"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."
"Man's unfailing capacity to believe what he prefers to be true rather than what the evidence shows to be likely and possible has always astounded me...God has not been proven not to exist, therefore he must exist." -- Academician Prokhor Zakharov
"Hal grabs life by the balls and doesn't let you do that [to] hal."
"I hereby declare myself master of the known world."
