Georgian Church

Russians and Georgians brethren in religion – Georgian Patriarch

March 14, 2012 Featured News

14/3/2012 Georgian church leader congratulates Putin on election win. In a message to Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin, Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Ilia II, congratulated him with election victory and told him that Georgia would never tolerate “tearing away” Abkhazia and South Ossetia. “I think that your huge experience will contribute to strengthening of [...]

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Handing over of Armenian churches must be based on principles of equality – Georgian patriarch

January 23, 2012 News

23/1/2012 The Georgian Orthodox Church passed a statement after the fire at the Church of St. Nikolai (Surb Nshan) on Serebryanaya Str. in Tbilisi. The Georgian patriarch says that the church needs enforcement. A joint commission should be organized for archeological studies. Georgian and Armenian officials must take part in the process to give impartial [...]

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Head of Georgian Church Meets Ivanishvili

December 26, 2011 Featured News
Patriarch Ilia II in his residence shows Bidzina Ivanishvili and his wife Ekaterine Khvedelidze a new, large triptych-type icon. Photo: Ivanishvili’s press office.

Civil Georgia, Tbilisi 25/12/2011 Head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Ilia II, met on December 24 in the Patriarchate with billionaire philanthropist Bidzina Ivanishvili for the second time since the latter went into the politics. “I will tell you briefly about developments since our last meeting [in November],” Ivanishvili, who came to the Patriarchate together [...]

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Georgian Church Leader Meets Ivanishvili

November 16, 2011 Featured News
Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church Ilia II and Bidzina Ivanishvili after the meeting in the Patriarchate on November 15. Photo: InterPressNews

Civil Georgia, Tbilisi 15/11/2011 Billionaire-turned-politician, Bidzina Ivanishvili, met with Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church Ilia II in the Patriarchate on Tuesday evening. After the meeting the Patriarch and Ivanishvili appeared jointly before the press to make brief statements. “We are glad that Bidzina Ivanishvili came to the Patriarchate. We talked about many issues, especially [...]

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Georgian Church calls for calm despite irritation at ‘hasty’ Law

July 13, 2011 News

By Gvantsa Gabekhadze 13/7/2011 The Holy Synod’s decision regarding giving legal status to other faiths in the country, as well as some other Church matters, was announced late on July 11. A written statement by the Holy Synod reiterated the Patriarchate’s dissatisfaction that the legislative amendment was passed hastily without proper consultations with the Georgian [...]

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Law on legal status of religious units in Georgia enters into Force

July 7, 2011 News

7/7/2011 PanARMENIAN.Net – Legislative amendment allowing religious minority groups to be registered as legal entities of public law, went into force after being published on July 6 by the state online registry of legal acts. Posting of the document by Sakanonmdeblo Matsne (legislation herald) means that it has been signed into law by President Saakashvili [...]

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Georgian Church Slams Law on Religious Groups’ Legal Status

July 6, 2011 News

Civil Georgia, Tbilisi 6/7/2011 A legislative amendment allowing religious minority groups to be registered as legal entities of public law “contravenes interests of both the Church and the country,” the Georgian Orthodox Church said in a statement late on July 5. “We believe, that this law will bring negative consequences in the nearest future and [...]

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A week of unfulfilled hopes: visit of Catholicos of All Armenians to Georgia

June 23, 2011 Featured News

22/6/2011 If we describe the visit of Catholicos of All Armenians to Georgia, we can say it was a hope, which clashed with reality. Hrant Mikaelyan, scientific collaborator of the Caucasus Institute, said during talk with Times.am reporter. “Situation of Armenian churches in Georgia has become worse and worse during the years. If 26 acting [...]

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Armenian, Georgian Church Leaders Reach Impasse

June 19, 2011 News

16/6/2011 YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—The spiritual leaders of Armenia and Georgia have failed to reach any concrete agreements on disputes between their state-backed churches after nearly one week of negotiations held during Catholicos Karekin II’s visit to Georgia. The supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church and Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II of the Georgian Orthodox Church publicly disagreed [...]

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Progress Reported In Resolution Of Georgian-Armenian Church Disputes

June 13, 2011 Featured News

13.06.2011 Karine Simonian The Armenian Apostolic Church said over the weekend that its supreme head, Catholicos Garegin II, reached agreements with Georgia’s political and spiritual leaders that will help to resolve its long-running disputes with the Georgian Orthodox Church. Garegin met with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II at the start of a [...]

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Georgian Church leader praises late Abkhazian President

June 6, 2011 News
The Late Sergei Bagapsh

Tbilisi, June 6, Interfax – The head of the Georgian Orthodox Church has offered his condolences to the family of late Abkhazian President Sergey Bagapsh and called him “a dignified member of the Abkhazian people and Orthodox Christian.” “On behalf of the Georgian Orthodox Church, I wish to express sincere condolences over the death of [...]

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Georgian Church Says ‘Ignored’ in Turkish-Georgian Talks on Restoring Historic Sites

February 8, 2011 Featured News

Civil Georgia, Tbilisi 7/2/2011 The Georgian Orthodox Church has again spoken out against potential deal between Georgia and Turkey, which, if signed, will pave the way for reconstruction of four Georgian medieval monasteries, now located in north-east Turkey, in exchange of rebuilding one and restoring of several other mosques in Georgia. The similar agreement was [...]

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Georgian Church Leader Slams Public TV Talk Show

December 18, 2010 News

17/12/2010 Civil Georgia, Tbilisi A talk show on public TV, discussing critically developments within the Georgian Orthodox Church, triggered a strong condemnation from the Patriarch Ilia II calling the TV program “more than bad” and “anti-national”. Public Broadcaster’s program, Dialogue with Davit Paichadze, late on December 16 focused on unsigned letter purportedly by “a well-informed” [...]

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Georgian Patriarchate is ready to dialogue with Abkhazia on Church Question

December 9, 2010 News

Tbilisi, December 9, Interfax – The Georgian Orthodox Church is open to the dialogue with Abkhazia, head of the Georgian Patriarchate Foreign Department Metropolitan Gerasim of Zugdidi and Tsaish told journalists. Thus he commented on statements made by a representative of Abkhazian clergy priest Vissarion Aplia about readiness to tune church relations with Tbilisi. Father [...]

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The head of the Georgian Church urged Georgians and Abkhazians to forgive Each Other

October 3, 2010 News

28/8/2010 Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II said that the war in Abkhazia in the early 1990′s was directed against the unity and brotherhood of Abkhazians and Georgians, and noted that they should forgive each other, because only in that their salvation. “The war in Abkhazia was actually not between Abkhazians and Georgians, and against [...]

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Georgian Church ‘Surprised’ Over Russian Patriarch’s S.Ossetia Move

September 27, 2010 News

25/9/2010 Head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Ilia II, told Russia’s Patriarch Kirill in a letter released on September 25 that it was a surprise to learn that he had congratulated Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia on “independence day” last week. The news that “you have sent a message of congratulation to self-styled President of South [...]

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Georgian Patriarch ready to share church lands with Population

September 1, 2010 News

Tbilisi, August 30, Interfax – Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II has come up with the initiative of sharing the lands of the Orthodox Church with the population and building special communities on them. “The Georgian Church has several thousand hectares of land at its disposal. I am ready to present all this land to [...]

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