In the heart of the Caucasus and at the border with Russia and the Muslim world, Georgia’s Church plays a pivotal role for the nation and the region. Now it’s in the new Patriarch’s hands.
Everything went according to plan. On May 11th Georgia’s bishops elected their 142nd patriarch, confirming the frontrunner from the moment candidates were announced. The metropolitan Shio (Mujiri), bishop of Senaki and Chkhorotsqu, was elected with 22 votes out of 39. Nine votes went to metropolitan Jobi (Akiashvili), bishop of Ruisi and Urbisi, and seven to metropolitan Grigol (Berbichashvili), bishop of Poti and Khobi.
Alongside the bishops — the sole electors — sat an “enlarged synod” of some 1,200 people: monks, priests, invited guests, political authorities and representatives of the church’s 43 dioceses. The entire ceremony was broadcast on television, except for the moment of the ballot itself. Metropolitan Anania (Japaridze) announced the result. Thousands gathered in the square outside; at the announcement, church bells rang out and the crowd responded with the traditional cry of “Axios” — “he is worthy.”
The following day, May 12th, the enthronement of Shio III was celebrated. In his homily, the new patriarch acknowledged his fear at the magnitude of the honor conferred upon him, offered extensive thanks — to the bishops, the monastic community, the civil authorities and the people at large — and struck several notes that amount to a program.
Values, youth and the weight of tradition
The patriarch reaffirmed the church’s roots in national history and identity, noting that Georgia “has made Christianity the orientation of its identity, its thought and its self-esteem.” He called on the ecclesial community to “share the joys and sorrows of the people, serving and sustaining them, because the strength of the Church lies not in words alone. Its vocation is Christiform love and the shared bearing of burdens. We must fling open the doors of the Church to all. Let us not prevent our neighbor from approaching the ambo.” He expressed concern at those who have drifted away from the church, and at the many temptations eroding moral and family values.
The patriarch placed particular emphasis on youth, arguing that the future rests in young people’s hands: “Faith in Christ, national values, respect for tradition, a sense of responsibility towards the nation and the Church — these must find resonance in them.” Conspicuously absent from his address, however, was any awareness of the risks of a church that has regained such prominent public standing sliding towards civil religion.
The full political spectrum declared its support, and the country’s leading figures attended the ceremony — among them Bidzina Ivanishvili, the oligarch founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, who has steadily steered it towards Moscow.
Shio III was born in Tbilisi in 1969. After studying music, he took monastic vows in 1993 and was ordained a priest in 1996. He spent time in Moscow and became a bishop in 2003. His predecessor Ilia II appointed him locum tenens — effectively deputy patriarch — in 2017, and for the past decade he has in practice governed the patriarchate, not without some friction with fellow bishops.
He is widely regarded as Ilia II’s “natural” successor, though he will be unable to command his predecessor’s authority and will be more constrained by the synod. Critics attribute his appointment as locum tenens to the influence of Hilarion, the former second-in-command of the Moscow synod. He is seen as more predictable and malleable than metropolitan Jobi (Akiashvili), who was explicitly criticized in an unusual communiqué issued by Russian foreign intelligence.
Between Moscow and Brussels
Calls from some members of the United National Movement — the main opposition force — to use the occasion to recognize the autocephalous status of the Ukrainian church are likely to go unheeded. Those voices made the case not merely on ecclesial grounds but to highlight Russia’s creeping and unlawful occupation of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. More traction is likely for calls to defend and promote the Georgian monastic complex of Tao-Klarjeti, now located in Turkish territory.
More immediate and politically viable is the demand for the release of political prisoners — the leaders of minority political parties. The patriarchate’s head of public relations, Andrea Jagmaidze, said the matter would be raised in dialogue with the government.
Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine has sharpened the confrontation between pro-Russian and pro-European factions in Georgia. The ruling majority’s passage of a law — modelled on Russian legislation — restricting international support for civil society initiatives, including newspapers and social organizations, triggered widespread protests in 2024 and led to the jailing of opposition leaders. The French parliament has approved a motion calling on the European Union to suspend all financial support to Tbilisi until the law is repealed and the prisoners freed.
Ilia II had managed to preserve an image of neutrality, despite the Georgian church’s longstanding ideological proximity to the Russian Orthodox Church. Some fear a Georgian translation of the Russkiy Mir — Russia’s hegemonic civilizational ideology — may be in the making. The young generations who were the driving force behind the civic protests represent a demanding constituency for the church and for its new patriarch alike.
(translated from Italian from Settimananews.it https://www.settimananews.it/chiesa/georgia-patriarca-shio-iii-continuita-allindietro/ )