Bishops on the Move

Op-Ed

A new player has appeared in the battle for the title of the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia. By engaging in the marathon, Bishop of Poti Grigol becomes the main competitor of the locum tenens Bishop Shio. Apparently, Bishop Grigol has been aiming for the post for quite some time, but after a group of high priests started travelling overseas more frequently, his hidden goals became more evident.

The ambitions of the Bishop could be identified by theologians and the clergy at the end of last year, reflected as they were in the Christmas Epistle that he wrote. Bishop Grigol of Poti clearly made a statement suggesting that nothing was guaranteed for the locum tenens Shio in the battle for the title of Patriarch. The Bishop of Poti is an influential figure within the Georgian Orthodox Church: he has supporters and, together with Metropolitan Petre Tsaava, is the only one who does not agree with everything the Patriarch says and openly declares that some of the decisions ought to be changed; which is exactly what happened on Christmas Day, when the influential bishop gave short but specific messages criticizing the Georgian Church, thanking the Patriarch for his 40-years of work, and encouraging changes. It is not difficult to comprehend which changes he was implying; Bishop Shio and his supposed new role as the Patriarch of Georgia. Bishop Grigol, the author of this noisy epistle, clearly communicated that he would be the main competitor against Patriarch Ilia’s favorite candidate for the throne.

Perhaps the time for change has come, indeed; the Patriarch has led the Church for over 40 years now. His persona has somehow embraced the concept of eternity since a lot has happened during this time in the country: socialism, 5 years of funerals – Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko, Perestroika, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the presidencies of Gamsakhurdia, Shevardnandze and Saakashvili, all as Ilia II continued his reign. Billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili is the eighth ‘Caesar,’ who more than once showed his mixed attitude towards the Orthodox Church and the Patriarch himself. Together with all other donations, the central temple of the country, the Holy Trinity Church, was erected with the help of Ivanishvili’s finances. But despite this, the billionaire has an uneven approach towards the Church when it comes to its path crossing that of politics. Ivanishvili satisfied the demand of official Yerevan and handed over the disputed Church Norasheni without hesitation. The decision on the infamous Cyanide Case was also his step in favor of politics, as this was used as a tool to weaken the increasingly strong influences of the Church.

Although the Patriarch’s appointed candidate isn’t from the billionaire’s close circle, he isn’t very far outside it. Bishop Shio is the childhood friend of President Giorgi Margvelashvili and has close connections with businessman Levan Vasadze and his group of “governmental intellectuals.” Despite such a background, clearly nothing is guaranteed for Bishop Shio yet. This argument is further supported by yet another influential leader Bishop Iakob, who said: “Being a locum tenants means nothing special. In some cases, this is a person who temporarily replaces the Patriarch in the event of his demise, but only before the next Patriarch is elected. He is the High Priest, just like all 45 others.”

Metropolitan Grigoli belongs to the Orthodox wing of the church, but was brought up within a fully Georgian setting, thus he doesn’t carry the burden of any Russian obligations, unlike bishop Shio. Perhaps that is why Metropolitan Grigoli prefers visits to Washington than Moscow.

Zaza Jgarkava