UOC denies rumors about Georgian Patriarch refusing a delegation to Kyiv

Patriarch-Catholicos Ilia II of All Georgia. Photo: orthodoxtimes

Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations (DECR), called the publication of the pro-Phanar resource that Patriarch of Georgia Ilia II had allegedly refused to send an official delegation of the Georgian Church to the UOC festivities dedicated to the 1033th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus an evident lie.

On July 29, the resource Εκκλησιαστικά Νέα της Γεωργίας published "hot news" with reference to reliable sources: His Beatitude Onuphry sent an invitation to the Georgian Patriarchy for a delegation of the GOC to attend the festivities in Kyiv, but Patriarch Ilia refused. The authors interpreted this as a signal of a change in the position of the GOC and its readiness to recognize the OCU.

“I want to officially declare that His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry did not send any invitation this year to Patriarch Ilia of Georgia with a request to send a delegation to celebrate the 1033th anniversary of the Baptism of Kievan Rus,” wrote the deputy head of the DECR UOC in his channel. “Accordingly, there was no refusal. Therefore, what this edition writes is an outright lie."

Father Nikolai stressed that the UOC has very good relations with the Georgian Church. He recalled that on June 25, Patriarch Ilia congratulated the Primate on the day of his namesake; moreover, there was a group of pilgrims from Georgia at the festivities on July 27-28 in Kyiv.

“Knowing the internal situation in the Georgian Church, I see no prerequisites for the recognition of our schismatics by this Church. Apparently, the potential for recognition by the OCU has already been exhausted. It is exhausted by the Churches of the Greek world, furthermore – only partially (Jerusalem, Albania, where the Primate is Greek, did not recognize the OCU, nor did most of the Cypriot bishops),” he added.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the media demand to punish the Church of Georgia for the UOC clergy performing their worship "in Russian".

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