How Copts will choose their next Pope

Following the death of Pope Shenuda III, the next Pope of the Coptic Church of Alexandria will be chosen based on a set of 1957 church bylaws, in a process that could take months.

Pope Shenuda III died on Saturday aged 88 after a long battle with illness.

According to the selection rules, the new pope must be a celibate Egyptian Copt and at least 40 years old.

The new spiritual leader must have spent at least 15 years in a monastery and cannot be head of a parish.

A council of 1,500 people will be involved in the selection process

The council is made up of senior clergy, Coptic public officials including current and former ministers, MPs and local councillors, as well as Coptic journalists with membership to the journalists union.

Candidates for the papacy can either put themselves forward or be nominated by others. The council members then elect a candidate.

The names of the three with the most votes are then written on three pieces of paper and folded, before a child from the congregation is chosen to pick one of the papers.

The name that the child chooses becomes the new Coptic Pope.

The process has no time limit according to experts.

It took eight months between the death of Pope Cyril VI in March 1971 and the beginning of Shenuda's papacy in November of the same year.