Letter of Met. Cyprian of Fili to the Patriarch of Georgia

[尼古拉前执事]

Ref. No: 1408

Athens, 24th March 2004

To: His Beatitude Elias II,
Catholicos Patriarch
of all Iberia, Tbilisi, Georgia.

Your Beatitude,

As it was widely reported in the international media, you will certainly be aware of the barbaric attack on the parish church of the Iberian Icon in Gldani (which is under my temporaryvEpiscopal protection) on the 12th March, in the course of which many persons were seriously injured, and several clergymen and laymen arrested and imprisoned. You are, however, perhaps unaware that yesterday the Police gave the Gldani parishioners the choice of handing over their church to the Georgian Patriarchate within one week, or being evicted by force. As they have given everything they had to construct this church, it is certain that they will defend it with their lives, and there will be much bloodshed when the Police realize this threat.

We know, indeed, that you did not give the order for this action; it is, however, being undertaken in the name of the Patriarchate, and one word from yourself could stop the carnage. If you were to do this, it is certain that you would gain friends in the Gldani parishioners, whose whole attitude to the Patriarchate would change, and with whom reconciliation, in due time, would become a real prospect. If you fail to impede this assault, then you will only gain a large group of people who will continue indefinitely to combat you with bitterness, and with whom any hope of reconciliation would be completely vain. We hesitate to add this, but, insofar as you have the possibility of intervening to stop this violent confrontation, if it in fact takes place, the blood of many innocent Georgian people may be on your hands.

The above request is not related to the impending trial of those arrested in Gldani on 12th March and the days following; they will be tried, and we pray that the judicial system of Georgia will treat them with true justice. Rather it is in the matter of the impending violent attack that you have the power to intervene, precisely because it will be performed in your own name. We implore you to follow your conscience in this matter.

I take this opportunity to add that we have been greatly satisfied to observe many positive actions on the part of the Georgian Patriarchate in recent years (leaving the World Council of Churches, condemnation of many innovations and so forth) ; we pray indeed that this trend may continue so that the blessed day may soon arrive when I can conscientiously recommend the Gldani faithful to unite themselves to the Patriarchate. However, a failure on your part to act in this emergency would undoubtedly result in a permanent breach. We therefore implore your Beatitude to intervene to stop this bloodshed.

+Cyprian,
Metropolitan of Oropos and Fili,
Greece President of the Synod in Resistance

[Joseph D]

Does it not smack of statecraft and diplomacy? And what about the "real prospect" of "reconcilliation"? Is this the same Met. Cyprian? I love his publications by the way.

Joseph

[Makis]

Please, allow me to ask some (perhaps silly) questions.

1) Didn't the Georgian Patriarchate step out of the WCC?
2) Doesn't the Georgian Patriarchate adhere to the old calender?
3) Isn't the georgian Patriarchate free of so-called "Sergianism"?
4) Did I miss something or is the Georgian Patriarchate suddenly heretical?

Then why on earth is there a parish in Georgia under the "temporary Episcopal protection" of Met. Cyprian?
Doesn't this make this parish a mere group of schismatics?
Isn't the reception of a group of schismatics under a Bishop's omophorion a terrible offence against the Canons?

In Christ,

Makis

[Savva24]

Please, allow me to ask some (perhaps silly) questions.

1) Didn't the Georgian Patriarchate step out of the WCC?
2) Doesn't the Georgian Patriarchate adhere to the old calender?
3) Isn't the georgian Patriarchate free of so-called "Sergianism"?
4) Did I miss something or is the Georgian Patriarchate suddenly heretical?

Then why on earth is there a parish in Georgia under the "temporary Episcopal protection" of Met. Cyprian?
Doesn't this make this parish a mere group of schismatics?
Isn't the reception of a group of schismatics under a Bishop's omophorion a terrible offence against the Canons?

In Christ,

Makis

Though I am in no ways an apologist for the line of thinking, I am pretty sure that the argument would be that the group had a right to separate from the Patriarch because of his communion with Ecumenists and New Calendarists.

Savva

[Makis]

Published by Interfax, March 21, 2004

Supporters of defrocked priest holding rally in Tbilisi

TBILISI - March 21 (Interfax) - Supporters of Vasil Mkalavishvili, a defrocked priest of the Georgian Orthodox Church who has been detained by the police, are holding a rally in front of Ortachala prison in Tbilisi, where Mkalavishvili's closed trial has begun.
The protesters describe Mkalavishvili as a political prisoner and demand his immediate release.

Mkalavishvili and seven supporters were detained on March 12 in a church in the Gldani district, which Mkalavishvili had built himself. Eighteen people suffered serious injuries during a large- scale detention operation.

For the past three years, Mkalavishvili and his nearly 1,000 supporters have been persecuting religious sects, primarily the Jehovah's Witnesses. About 100 beatings of the sect's members, book-burnings and other incidents have been reported to the police.

In autumn 2003, a Tbilisi district court sentenced Mkalavishvili to three months in a pretrial detention facility, but he managed to escape.

The Georgian Justice Ministry told Interfax that the trial is proceeding in the prison to avoid conflicts or provocation

source: http://www.orthodoxnews.netfirms.com/11 ... rocked.htm

While agreeing that sects and cults as the jehova witnesses (should) have nothing to do in countries like Georgia, I remain convinced that the freedom of religion is one of the most important freedoms one can and should have under civil law.
Furthermore, beating up misleaded souls and burning books is not exactly a Christian thing to do.
I really wonder why any Bishop should take such a group, knowing their background, under his Omophorion, obviously against all Canons.

Though I am in no ways an apologist for the line of thinking, I am pretty sure that the argument would be that the group had a right to separate from the Patriarch because of his communion with Ecumenists and New Calendarists.

Seems to me that the reason is slightly different.

In Christ,

Makis

[Justin Kissel]

...burning books is not exactly a Christian thing to do.

Perhaps the Fathers who weighed in at the Ecumenical Councils (and Local ones) were not aware of that, since they decreed that the books of heretics be burned?

[Justin Kissel]

Nicholas,

I'm curious as to what you think of this letter. At first sight, it's seems somewhat strange and inconsistent in it's tone and content. But then, when I think of the letters of saints I've read, it isn't all that different. Bishops must, of necessity (with rare exceptions like St. Nektarios) engage in politics; and politics, of necessity, requires word games and hyperbole and playing things up even when you don't necessarily agree with what you are saying (or think what you are saying unlikely).