Georgia Religion

A bearded Orthodox priest solemnly gliding by on rollerblades is not a usual sight in Georgia. Or elsewhere, for that matter. Yet along a bridge and into Tbilisi's downtown area a priest in flowing robes did glide the other day. Granted, the Bible chronicles stranger things, but several alarmed local priests promptly appeared on the scene and ordered the holy roller to give up his sinful ways.

In fact, the coasting reverend was an actor and the miraculous sight was part of a movie project, but the real clerics declared that the scene ridiculed the Georgian Orthodox Church and demanded a halt to production. Police had to intervene between the film crew and the priests, who were backed up by seminary students. In the end, the movie-makers beat a retreat, reported the Netgazeti.ge news site.

Back in the Soviet era, parodying priests in movies was frequent and keenly encouraged by the state. A confrontation between a rotund, gluttonous priest and a relentless anarchist ("Jesus was slim. What made you gain weight?") is a trademark of the 1970s classic, The Adventures of Lazarus. One of the best known Georgian movies from the same period, The Wishing Tree, features a frivolous village priest with a taste for the bottle.

Georgia is earning plaudits from social media fans for being Facebook-friendly on an unrivaled scale for the South Caucasus. With nearly 14 percent of its population now Facebook users (638,620 people), Georgians increasingly check and share news, rally for various causes, play and interact on the network.

Among their number is one Georgian Orthodox priest, who, angered by recent legislative amendments that upgrade the status of Georgia's religious minorities, has posted a curse that is making the rounds.

The divisive legislation, which gave religious minorities registered in the European Union a similar status to that enjoyed by the Georgian Orthodox Church, has sparked fiery Facebook debates between liberal secularists and faithful traditionalists.

The debate takes many and various forms, including, now, a curse  from Father Bartlome [Bartholomew] Pirtskhalashvili  on the Georgian parliament for supporting the amendments.

Some Georgian Facebook users are reposting the curse to support the Church, others as a troubling example of religious fanaticism, and still others just for entertainment.  
  
“I curse every deputy who voted for this law,” reads Father Bartlome's now entirely public status update. Then he gets a little anatomical. “May the head on their shoulders be damned, the shoulders above their chest, the chest above their waist, the waist above their thighs, the thighs above their knees, the knees above their shins, the shins above their feet, the land under their feet … Amen!”

At least, legislative spleens, livers and other internal organs were spared.  

There is never a shortage of drama in Georgia, but, until recently, the scandals usually have hit one at a time. Now the country simultaneously faces a hue and cry over the arrest of three prominent photographers on espionage charges and an unprecedented state-vs-church confrontation over changes in the legal status of religious minorities.

In a videotaped statement posted on the Interior Ministry's website, presidential photographer Irakli Gedenidze said that he'd become aware that requests for photos  allegedly made by European Pressphoto Agency photographer Zurab Kurtsikidze were connected to "the special services."

“I knew that he was sending these images to Moscow, to a photo agency there," he said. Gedenidze claims he tried to refuse the requests, but was told it would jeopardize his contractual relations with Kurtsikidze.

The videotaped statement, though, did little to dispel widespread distrust and confusion surrounding the photographers’ case.

The tape presented a plan of the presidential residence, a presidential schedule and a document about a presidential meeting, stamped "secret," as among the documents allegedly passed to Kurtsikidze. The Interior Ministry claims that Kurtsikidze was in contact with two Russian military intelligence agents, but does not elaborate.

On Saturday, Gedenidze's wife, Natia, was released without being charged.

We're told that divine power supersedes earthly laws, but a controversy in Georgia about the legal status of religious minority groups suggests that even God may need a legal personality in today's lawyer-happy world.

 A set of legislative amendments, proposed by the ruling United National Movement Party and approved by parliament in a first reading on July 1, would grant a legal status under so-called "public law" (a status also enjoyed by government offices) to five religious groups that have "deep historic ties" with Georgia: the Muslim and Jewish communities, the Roman Catholic Church, Armenian Apostolic Church and Evangelical Baptist Church.


Currently, these groups can only be registered as non-commercial entities, a status mostly reserved for non-governmental organizations. Georgia's minority religious groups have long complained that this status fails to recognize their religious functions.


The proposal is facing steady headwind from the dominant Georgian Orthodox Church, which also falls under "public law"  and holds other privileges defined by a special agreement with the Georgian government.

Describing the amendments as "unexpected," Georgian Orthodox Church Patriarch Ilia II on July 4 called for parliament to postpone the vote until public discussions and the formation of a governmental commission to study the proposed change take place. Not to mention, consultations with the Georgian Orthodox Church.

Could the opening of a Buddha Bar in Tbilisi spark a battle of the gods in the Georgian capital?

Georgia's venerated spiritual leader Patriarch Ilia II on November 13 spoke out against plans to open an outpost of the international restaurant and lounge chain, known for its signature Buddha sculpture. The church leader deemed inadmissible the erection of a Buddha statue -- even for solely gastronomic and entertainment purposes.

The Buddha statue’s presence in Tbilisi will show irreverence to the thousands of Georgian Christians slaughtered by (Muslim) Persians in the 13th century, Ilia II argued. “It is totally unallowable… this is a holy land,” said the patriarch, whom many Georgians view as Georgia's father figure.
  
Rated as the country’s most trusted institution, the Church has had difficulty digesting some of the changes brought about by the campaign to bring the outside world to Georgia. In the past, the Church has spoken out against celebrations of Halloween or importing the Harry Potter series of books; it has also fought hard against derisive mentions of the Church in contemporary Georgian fiction.

The Buddha Bar franchise is coming to Tbilisi as part of the city government’s efforts to create a posh recreational space in the city's historic downtown. The presidential palace, the country's main Holy Trinity (Sameba) cathedral and the medieval Narikala Fortress all overlook the Buddha Bar's planned site from atop surrounding cliffs. A mosque and a synagogue are also located in close vicinity.   

Is ignorance bliss for Georgians? In a way, yes, according to the country's highly revered spiritual leader, Georgian Orthodox Church Patriarch Ilia II.

With the domestic education system still in mid-reform, many young Georgians are seeking knowledge in the West, but, away from home and the mother church, their impressionable minds run the risk of cultural indoctrination, the patriarch warned in an October 3 sermon.

Georgia’s young are not “strong spiritually, culturally” and may easily drift away from their traditional moorings and also lose respect for parental authority, Ilia II posited.

Just look at what is going on over in Canada, he continued. When "lightly slapped" by their parents, Canadian youngsters can call the police on mom and dad, he fumed. “So he (she) is a whistle-blower, [a] betrayer of [his or her] parents.” To make sure that Georgian kids do not do the same, Georgian families should avoid sending them for studies abroad, he deduced.

Could His Holiness be worrying that his parish is thinning, amidst an onslaught of Western liberalism? Recent statistics do not suggest so. According to a 2008 poll, over 94 percent of Georgians, who are overwhelmingly Georgian Orthodox Christians, believe that Ilia II is the nation’s most trusted figure. The Church is widely seen as synonymous with Georgia's cultural identity.