Georgian monastics driven out of Abkhazia

messenger.com.ge ^ | April 6, 2009 | Temuri Kiguradze

[Tailgunner Joe]

"The Patriarch has expressed concern over Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) support of separatism in the region by subsidizing web sites that encourage secessionist sentiments. The GOC has also complained that in addition to encouraging separatism, the Moscow Theological Seminary is training Abkhaz priests. Despite the fact that the ROC recognizes Georgia-Abkhazia territorial integrity, the GOC Patriarchy claims that the ROC is sending in priests loyal to Moscow, under the pretext of setting up indigenous Abkhaz churches." - state.gov

I think it's the Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church to whom you should deliver your lecture about Orthodox ecclesiology! You should explain to him how there is no hypocrisy at all involved in the ROC's activities inside the Georgian jurisdiction! The ROC's complaints about other churches sending their own priests into the ROC's jurisdiction are not at all hypocritical! It's just that the same rules do not apply to Russians that apply to everyone else. Because two wrongs don't make a right, and only the Russian Orthodox Church is allowed to violate their own rules with impunity!