
Pro-government media, MPs, and Patriarchate attack Tbilisi theatre’s ‘blasphemous’ play
The Royal District Theatre, which staged the play, is known for its outspoken stance during ongoing anti-government protests.
The Royal District Theatre, which staged the play, is known for its outspoken stance during ongoing anti-government protests.
The Patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox Church has issued a statement which tacitly endorsed the ruling Georgian Dream party while still claiming neutrality. In their statement on Tuesday, the Church listed the protection of ‘national and religious values’, the unification of the country, ‘safeguarding sovereignty’, and ‘maintaining peace’ as priorities equally shared by both the Georgian public and the country’s state institutions. In the statement released by its Public Relations Office,
On Wednesday, the Patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox Church confirmed that Georgia’s ruling party had proposed to designate Orthodox Christianity as the state religion, but suggested that the Church remained sceptical about the proposal. Speaking to media, Church spokesperson Andria Jaghmaidze stated that members of the clergy had met with unnamed representatives of the ruling party on Monday to discuss the proposal. Jaghmaidze praised the government for its commitment to upholding ‘na
Georgian Orthodox priests in southwestern Georgia led a mob of 200 people in an attempt to break into the house of a local imam to disrupt Friday prayer. The mob attempted to break into Imam Merab (Yusuf) Mikeladze’s house in Adigeni in Georgia’s Samtskhe-Javakheti region on Friday. Batumelebi reported that Mikeladze had been holding Friday prayers at his house for the past ‘few years’, which some in Adigeni, including members of the Orthodox clergy, protested. Footage of the incident
An archpriest convicted of plotting the murder of the Georgian Patriarch’s secretary-referent, Giorgi Mamladze, has been released from prison two years early. On Wednesday, the archpriest’s brother, Tornike Mamaladze, announced his brother’s release after serving seven years out of his nine-year sentence. ‘After seven years of suffering and waiting, my brother deacon Giorgi is free!’ wrote Mamaladze on Facebook. Mamaladze’s family and supporters have been actively campaigning for his re
The speaker of the Georgian parliament has criticised the US aid agency, USAID, for funding ‘propaganda against the Georgian Church’ and ‘financing religious intolerance’. On Saturday, Shalva Papuashvili also accused ‘so-called civil activists’ and ‘media belonging to the [opposition parties United] National Movement and Lelo’ of attacking the Georgian Orthodox Church. Papuashvili was referring to criticism of the Church for its handling of a scandal surrounding an icon that featured Jose
The Georgian Patriarchate has asked the donors of a controversial icon featuring Joseph Stalin to remove the Soviet dictator from the icon. The icon, which was donated by the pro-Russian group Alliance of Patriots, chronicles the life of Saint Matrona of Moscow, a 20th-century Russian Orthodox Church saint. One of the smaller icons surrounding the central depiction of Matrona appears to feature the saint and Stalin, sparking controversy in Georgia, Stalin’s birthplace. The church asked th