ROCOR has new hierarch

New York, May 12, Interfax - Archbishop Hilarion (Kapral) of Sydney, Australia and New Zealand has been elected the new hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), secretary of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Archpriest Nikolay Balashov told Interfax-Religion.

The election took place during a session of ROCOR's Archbishop Council in New York.

Archbishop Hilarion became acting Chairman of ROCOR's Synod after the death of ROCOR's top hierarch Metropolitan Laurus of East America and New York and was seen as his likeliest successor.

Under the new order, his candidacy requires the approval of Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II.

Archbishop Hilarion (Igor Kapral) was born on January 6, 1948, in Canada.

In 1972, he graduated from the Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville.

On December 1974, he was tonsured as a Ryassofor monk with the name of Hilarion. In December 1975, he was ordained to the deaconate. In 1976, he became a hierodeacon. The following year he graduated from Syracuse University with a master's degree in Slavic Studies and Russian Literature and was ordained to priesthood.

In December 1984, at the age of 36, Father Hilarion was appointed bishop of Manhattan. In June 1996, he was transferred to the diocese of Australia and New Zealand and raised to the rank of archbishop.

In 2006, he was elected first deputy chairman of ROCOR's Synod.