2 November 2019, 22:54
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.