RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


Georgian church complains about threat from Russian church

PATRIARCH ILIA II SENDS PROTEST TO PATRIARCH KIRILL AGAINST NEW INTRUSION BY R.P.Ts. ON TERRITORY OF GEORGIAN CHURCH

Credo.Press, 18 November 2019

 

Catholicos-Patriarch of all-Georgia Ilia II appealed to RPTsMP Patriarch Kirill because of a new intrusion by the Moscow patriarchate onto territory of the Georgian church. As Novosti-Gruziia reported on 17 November, Ilia II's appeal was published on the patriarchate's website.

 

Yesterday the famous physician, the president of the Georgian Association of Orthopedic Surgeons, Vazha Gaprindashvili, who lives in Tbilisi, was detained near the village of Orchosani in the Tskhinvali region, which is actually controlled by the Russian Federeation. Vazha Gaprindashvili was sentenced to two months of preliminary confinement on a charge of transgressing "state boundaries." This incident also was mentioned by the head of the Georgian patriarchate.

 

"It is with pain in our heart that we have watched how Russia has transgressed the boundaries in the Tskhinvali region and kidnaps people from the border zone, which has a permanent character," the message says. "This time everybody is concerned because of the detention of the famous physician Vazhi Gaprindashvili in a Tskhinvali cell. Such a situation evokes in our society great and justified discontent and protest."

 

In the appeal it is also noted that it is unacceptable to send clergymen of the RPTsMP to Russian military units located in Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region without permission of the Georgian church, since this exacerbates the situation.

 

"Against this background, an extremely negative impression is created by reports that you wish to send graduates of ecclesiastical schools to help army commanders in Russian military units located in Abkhazia, Tskhinvali region, Kyrgyzstan, and the Arctic. The Russian church has always recognized and does recognize the jurisdiction of the Georgian church both in Abkhazia and in the Tskhinvali region, and therefore we do not understand such statements and they put us all in a difficult situation," Ilia II notes.

 

In conclusion, he expresses the hope that the head of the RPTsMP "as much as possible will undertake measures for the normalization of relations between our states, peoples, and churches. (tr. by PDS, posted 18 November 2019)

 


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