According to Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria traditions, the Pope, being the Bishop of Alexandria and being the senior and elder bishop and the metropolitan archbishop of the province and primate of all Egypt, is the head of the Holy Synod as a first among equals. The most senior position after the Pope was that of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Pentapolis, but since it ceased to be a major archiepiscopal metropolis in the days of Pope John VI it has been held as a titular see attached to another metropolis.