Patriarchate of Georgia, UAE Embassy Distribute New Year Gifts & Food
On December 23, the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Georgia organized a charity event for the Patriarch's godchildren and their families. The event was held at Trinity Cathedral Youth Center and was attended by patriarch's godchildren along with their families, Ambassador of the UAE in Georgia – H.E. Essa Albasha Alnoaimi, Head of the State Agency for Religious Issues – Mr. Zaza Vashakmadze and Archbishop Shalva Kekelia as a representative of Georgian church.
At the outset of the event, Archbishop Shalva Kekelia delivered a speech where he thanked the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates for this initiative and support, noting that he is proud that the Patriarch already has 40,000 godchildren, which indicates the large number of multiple children families.
The Archbishop also noted that the Church itself should help such families, but “unfortunately, it is not able to provide help to this number of families permanently and accordingly, the support of embassies and businesses is very important,” he said. In addition, the Archbishop delivered the blessings of Catholicos Patriarch Ilia II to each attendee of the event, expressing his deep gratitude and love for their families.
The Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates in Georgia, H.E. Essa Albasha Alnoaimi, started his welcoming speech by pointing out the importance of deepening relations between the Emirati and Georgian people on the level of human communication. He also spoke about 2019, which was a year of tolerance and peace and highlighted that his country and Georgia share the values of tolerance and personally expressed his pride towards the atmosphere of tolerance he experiences in Georgia. Then he mentioned that the members and partners of the Global Council for Tolerance and Peace (GCTP) received affirmation of support from the UAE for their council, which is in line with the UAE policies at a celebration of completing 2019, the Year of Tolerance, which was held on 16th and 17th of December 2019 in Abu Dhabi noting that the activities of this year started in the beginning of February when the Human Fraternity Document was signed by Pope of Vatican, Francis II and Grand Imam of Al-Azhar - Ahmed Al-Tayeb in the presence of 700 religious figures, including a delegation from the Patriarchate of Georgia.
The Ambassador also briefed the attendees on the activities and initiatives of the organization Red Crescent.The Emirates Red Crescent is the United Arab Emirates affiliate of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. In 2001, the UAE Red Crescent was selected as the second best humanitarian authority at the level of the continent of Asia. The authority works to support the official authorities in peacetime and wartime, in accordance with the provisions of Article 26 of the First Geneva Convention of 1949.
The Ambassador thanked the Patriarchate for providing the opportunity to assist these wonderful families and expressed their readiness to stand by them in the future. He noted that despite religious differences, humanity and kind activities are paramount.
Zaza Vashakmadze, Head of the State Agency for Religious Issues, under the governmental administration, also delivered a speech at the event, emphasizing how tolerant Georgia is towards other religions and expressing pride due to the above fact and thanked H.E. Ambassador on this initiative and the Church for blessing this charitable effort.