On October 31, Tbilisi hosted a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Georgian Church. It mostly focused on the conflict between the bishops over the allegations of forcible removal of Catholicos-Patriarch Elijah II.
On October 31, Tbilisi hosted a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Georgian Church. It mostly focused on the conflict between the bishops over the allegations of forcible removal of Catholicos-Patriarch Elijah II.
There is still no official communique of the Georgian Patriarchate, but it is known from the media that both conflicting bishops Jacob (Yakobishvili) and Peter (Tsaavu) were dismissed from their duties at the Synod.
By the way, both are supporters of Ukrainian autocephaly. But there is information that the issue of recognition of the OCU was also discussed, Cerkvarium reports.
According to the Georgian News Agency, Metropolitan Grigol of Poti and Khobi spoke publicly about this: "it is clear that autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church has already been officially recognized by the Greek Orthodox Church. We see that different Churches, as well as the Orthodox Church of Georgia, are cautious about this issue, but this is a process that is irreversible, sooner or later any Church will have to express its position on this issue, unequivocally taking the appropriate decision."
The support of Ukrainian autocephaly by many bishops of the GOC has long been known. But this Church has not yet made a decision on the recognition of the OCU. Caution and official neutrality are associated with fears that the ROC will recognize the independence of the Abkhazian diocese. Recently, Metropolitan Anania (Japaridze) of Maglis and Tetritskaroy, who is also a supporter of Ukrainian autocephaly, explained that the Georgian Church will wait for the Church ‘heavyweights’ – those of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem – to deliver their verdict.