Metropolitan Herman to begin Official Visit to the Orthodox Church of Georgia
His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, will be the guest of His Holiness, Patriarch-Catholicos Ilia of Georgia April 16 - 24, 2004.
Accompanying Metropolitan Herman in the official delegation will be His Grace, Bishop Seraphim of Ottawa and Canada, Vice-Chairman of the Department of Interchurch Relations and Ecumenical Witness; Protopresbyter Robert S. Kondratick, OCA Chancellor, and the Very Rev. Leonid Kiskhovsky, Assistant to the Chancellor for Interchurch Relations and Ecumenical Witness, also accompanying will be staff from the Orthodox Church in America.
During the official visit, Metropolitan Herman and delegation members will visit major Church centers, including T’bilisi, the nation’s capital; Mshketa; Bodbe; Necresi; Alaverdi; and other historical sites.
On Saturday, April 17, Metropolitan Herman will visit Tbilisi’s Holy Trinity Cathedral, the largest church in the Caucasus, which is under construction, and other churches in the capital, before concelebrating the All-Night Vigil at Sioni Cathedral. The following morning he will concelebrate the Divine Liturgy for the Sunday of Saint Thomas at Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta, the nation’s ancient capital. On Monday, April 19, he will visit Tbilisi State University and a number of local monasteries. That evening he will attend a reception in his honor hosted by US Ambassador Richard Miles at the US Embassy. On Tuesday, April 20, Metropolitan Herman will deliver a lecture at the spring seminar on missionary work in Tabakhmela, followed by visits to local monasteries. He will also visit the Bodbe Monastery, where he will venerate the relics of Saint Nino, Equal to the Apostles and Enlightener of Georgia.
On Wednesday, April 21, Metropolitan Herman will visit several monasteries in Tsinandali and the Kakheti region before returning to Tbilisi.
Metropolitan Herman is slated to meet with the recently elected Georgian President, Mikhail Saakashvili; Prime Minister Zurab Shvaniya; and Salome Zurabishvili, Minister of Foreign Affairs; and other government officials on Thursday, April 22. The following morning he will visit the Tbilisi office of International Orthodox Christian Charities and participate in a press conference.
“While there was a strong Christian presence in the region prior to the fourth century—known at the time as Iberia—the Orthodox Church of Georgia traces its official establishment to 330 A.D. when Saint Nino’s preaching led to the conversion of the imperial house and the general population,” according to the Very Rev. John Matusiak, OCA Communications Director. “Tradition holds that the Apostle Andrew first preached the Gospel in the region, after which churches were established along the Black Sea and inland.”
Standing at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Georgia has a unique and ancient cultural heritage. In the 19th century it was annexed by Russia. The nation enjoyed an interlude of independence after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution but was invaded by the Soviet Red Army in 1921 and incorporated into the Soviet Union the following year. Following the collapse of Communism in 1991, Georgians voted overwhelmingly for the restoration of independence.
Photos and a full report on Metropolitan Herman’s visit will be posted on the OCA web site at http://www.oca.org and appear in the May-June 2004 issue of “The Orthodox Church” newspaper.