TOPSHOT-RUSSIA-RELIGION-PATRIARCH-ALEXY

TOPSHOT - CROPPED VERSION - Russian Orthodox believers hold candles in memory of late Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II at Christ the Saviour cathedral in Moscow on December 5, 2008. Alexy II, the conservative Orthodox patriarch who oversaw a post-Soviet renaissance of the Russian Church yet was steadily criticised as subservient to the Kremlin, died at 79, the church said. The top hierarchy of the Church, which counts millions of believers around the world, was to meet on december 6, to appoint a temporary "guardian" of the patriarch's throne and start a process in which contenders have been jostling on the sidelines for years. AFP PHOTO / NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA (Photo by NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP) (Photo by NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images)