Meeting of the Holy Synod (patriarchate.ge)
The Georgian Orthodox Church has come out against ‘the legalisation’ of drugs in Georgia, saying it is considering denying religious rituals to Orthodox Christians who die of an overdose. In a meeting of the Holy Synod, the Church’s ruling body, they called for harsh sentences for drug dealers, while also advocating treatment for users. [Read more…]
Archangel Michael Orthodox Church. (Dominik K. Cagara /OC Media)
Seven people have been left dead including four attackers after militants attempted to storm a church in the Chechen capital Grozny. According to Intelligence Group Enterprise, the Islamic State’s Caucasus Province has claimed responsibility for the attack, on the Archangel Michael Orthodox Church, the only Orthodox church in Grozny. [Read more…]
A priest attending counter-rally on Sunday (Mari Nikuradze /OC Media)
Georgia’s Orthodox Church distanced themselves from neo-Nazi groups, at a press conference at the Patriarchate on Monday, according to Netgazeti. Announcing their plans for 17 May — International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia — the Church urged any ‘aggressive’ groups to abstain from participating in events, and disavowed neo-Nazi group the Nationalist Socialist Movement — National Unity of Georgia. [Read more…]
Family purity day on 17 May 2017 (/OC Media)
The Georgian Orthodox Church is to host 400 marriages on 17 May, the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT). The Church declared 17 May the Family Purity Day in 2014, a year after a priest-led rally attacked a small group of queer rights activists who gathered to protest discrimination. [Read more…]
(Golos Dagestana)
Six people are dead and four more injured, after an attack on a church in the Daghestani city of Kizlyar. Five parishioners and the attacker were killed, while the injured included two police officers, who remain in hospital. The attacker was reportedly a member of the Islamic State. [Read more…]
Ilia II, the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church (Ambioni.ge)
A number of leading figures in the government have echoed anti-drug messages from the Patriarch’s annual Christmas epistle. Ilia II, the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, stressed the ‘importance of elaborating an anti-drug policy’.
The remains found in an archaeological study of Kumurdo Cathedral will be buried in a tomb outside the church grounds, according to a statement from Georgia’s National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation. The agency says the remains belong to people shot during the Soviet period. [Read more…]
Clashes between locals and police in a village in southern Georgia have left several people injured, including police. [Read more…]
A cross was recently placed and consecrated on the planned construction site (Aida Mirmaksumova/OC Media)
Construction on the shore of Makhachkala’s Ak-Gyol Lake by local authorities and private entrepreneurs has been going on for years, to the chagrin of many locals. The fight against the latest such construction, an Orthodox Christian cathedral, has been taken on by local Christians themselves, who are suing the local government and their own diocese. [Read more…]
Construction site near the Armenian church (TDI photo)
A construction permit to build a residential building in close vicinity to a damaged Armenian church in Tbilisi was issued illegally, according to a new study by Georgian rights group the Tolerance and Diversity Institute (TDI). [Read more…]
