Georgian Baptist Identity evaluated
“Romanian Baptists would not consider you to be Baptists” said Dr Danut Manasterianu of Romania, the Christian Impact Director of World Vision International, in his public interview in at the Cathedral Baptist Church in Tbilisi on May 23rd.
“The first time I have seen the web site of your church I could hardly believe that such a church indeed exists.” says Brother Danut, ” Then, visiting Georgia and worshipping with you on the day of Ascension and then the next Sunday, I realised that reality exceeds far more what is described there in a few words and pictures.”
The congregation of the Cathedral Baptist Church found the interview with the Romanian brother most encouraging and inspiring. “We thank the Lord for the friendship with the Romanian brother. I think, being an Easterner himself, he could deliver at the Cathedral somewhat painful yet prophetic message about the future of democracy in Georgia” commented the Presiding Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili.
You can read entire text of the interview in the News Flash.
Evangelical Churches of Georgia come together
On 23rd May representatives of Evangelical Churches of Georgia came together to discuss the possibility of forming the Evangelical Alliance.
“This movement towards unity among Evangelicals was started by Brother Malkhaz 10 years ago when he came to us and asked forgiveness for everything Baptists had done wrongly against Pentecostals” said the head of the Pentecostals in Georgia, Oleg Khubashvili.
At the end all participants agreed that all the churches should first move towards more visible unity before an Alliance would be founded. A vision and targets of the Alliance should be defined and differences as well.
25th Anniversary of Pope’s Pontificate Celebrated in Tbilisi
By initiative of the Apostolic Nunciature in Georgia the 25th anniversary of the pontificate of Pope John Paul II was celebrated in Tbilisi. The formal celebration took place May 25 at the Grand Hall of the Tbilisi Conservatoire.
All the guests were given a volume which includes the Georgian version of speeches, poetic and theological texts of the Pope along with his apostolic letter delivered during his visit to Georgia. The title of the apostolic letter is: “The Light from the East (Orientale Lumen), the significance of the Oriental Churches for Christendom. The book is illustrated by documentary photographs from the Pope’s visit to Georgia.
Invited were the religious leaders of the country including Catholicos Patriarch Ilia II.
“Do meet Bishop Malkhaz, he is the only ethnically Georgian religious leader in this country, beside Catholicos Patriarch Ilia II of course,” so Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti introducing the Baptist Bishop to Cardinal Roger Etchegaray.
Gazi Ali Aliev head of the Muslim community in Georgia called Bishop Malkhaz his best friend.
A new ordained minister in the Russian Baptist Church
On 23rd May the oldest Russian speaking Baptist church in the world, the Tbilisi Russian Baptist Church, celebrated the ordination of a new minister. Dato Khutsishvili (32) is the first ethnical Georgian to be ordained as a minister of the Russian church.
Dato is a student of the School of Elijah. He was born in Tbilisi. His father was a Georgian journalist, his mother is a Russian literature teacher. He got a Russian upbringing in the city center of Tbilisi. The father died when David was 14. David’s grand father was a navy officer in the Soviet army. He came to the church through his mother who has been a member of the church for a number of years. Six years ago he decided to go to a ministerto give his life to Jesus. He took some alcohol “for bravery” and went to the Revd Gregory Levinetz. After having a lengthy conversation with the minister he committed his life to the Lord and joined the Church.
Dato will serve the church as a deputy minister. He has already baptized 3 people along with another deputy minister in the Tbilisi Sea. The Revd Gregory Levinetz, the senior minister of the Russian church, commented: “It is both a joyful and a sad occasion to see someone whom I have been mentoring being ordained now. I am very happy to see this new generation which has the opportunity to live in a freer country, who have access to theological education. I am kind of sad that my generation did not have the same opportunities.”
Replies from the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia
The Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia has always been keen on developing fraternal relations with all Christian churches.
Our fraternal Easter letters to the heads of other churches have had an encouraging response.
Thus we received cordial greetings from the His Excellency Petros VII, Pope and Patriarch
of Alexandria and All Africa and from His Excellency Alexey II, Patriarch of Moscow and
all Russia, for which we are very grateful.
Mel Gibson’s Film Bringing Christians Together
From Good Friday to Pentecost Mel Gibson’s Passion of Christ was shown every Friday at the Cathedral Baptist Church.
May 28th the people were invited to the Cathedral to hold a discussion of the film.
A lot of people came: students, religious leaders, eminent professors, scholars, art experts...
The opinions were divided.
At the end of the discussion an Orthodox lady from the Tbilisi City Council, Mrs. Manana Kutateladze asked for the floor.
“For me it is important that on that Good Friday this film brought all of us to this Cathedral, Orthodox, Catholics, Baptists... Not long ago we had been attacking each other. That day we set together and watched the film. We were together. This is most important for me.”
Pentecost Fires in the Cathedral Baptist Church
May 30th the Cathedral Baptist Church was absolutely packed. All the bishops, ministers and lay leaders of the local congregations came. All of them entered the Cathedral in procession and offered one phrase thanksgiving prayers in Georgian, Armenian and Russian languages.
The Liturgical Dancers brought flames of fire in clay vessels.
Holy Oil was consecrated by the entire congregation. Bishops, male and female ministers, all the Christians present participated in the consecration.
The liturgy was also embellished by classical music. Magdalena Kuhn of the Netherlands (flute) and Nino Mamradze (piano) played Schubert, Mozart and Reinecke.
“I like this tradition when all the ministers come together to consecrate the oil. It’s like going to Jerusalem. It is also an encouragement for me as a minister. I am not alone I have fellow ministers, brothers and sisters. It was also very good to have an informal fellowship with them after the service,” says Gregory Levinetz of the Russian Baptist Church.
The First Lady of Georgia is keen to participate in Baptist projects
June 2nd Sandra Elisabeth Roelofs, the first lady of Georgia, visited some Baptist projects in Tbilisi. She inspected along with the Presiding Bishop the Beteli Center and the Good Samaritan’s Home.
At the Center she met with Sisters of St Nino, teachers and students of the School of Elijah, the School of Solomon and St Luke’s artistic school. “This is a huge project” exclaimed the First Lady when she saw the building of the Center.
She was given a luxury edition of the New Georgian Bible decorated with five crosses on the cover. At the Good Samaritan’s Home she had a meal along with project directors.
At the end of the visit Mrs. Sandra Roelofs gave a huge rose to Bishop Malkhaz. The rose is a symbol of the Revolution that took place in November 2003.
After the visit Bishop Songulashvili received a message from the first lady saying:
“Thank you very much for the interesting visits to your projects. I was very impressed and would like to ask particular details on the Summer Camp. I would be available to go there myself in the first half of July and give a presentation on van Gogh and the Netherlands in Georgian and in Russian.”
The Baptists Support the Persecuted Orthodox Archpriest
June 5, Archpriest George Chachava of St Panteleimon’s Church in Tbiliisi spoke openly about the problems in the Orthodox Church of Georgia. Fr. George Chachava has been a priest of the Georgian Orthodox Church for 25 years. He taught at the theological Academy for a number of years. Most of the priests and Bishops of the church used to be his students.
When Fr. George was leaving the TV station he was attacked by a group of people led by his fellow Orthodox priest, Fr. David Kvlividze. Fr George managed to drive his car away. He was followed by Fr. Kvlividze. He crashed Fr. Chachava’s car from behind in order to push him off the road. Ultimately Fr. George managed to call his friends by mobile phone, who came to rescue him from the Fundamentalists.
On Sunday, June 5th, the congregation of the Cathedral Baptist Church prayed for Father George and signed a letter to the Georgian society. In the letter we read:
“We are concerned by what has happened with Fr. George Chachava. Therefore we appeal the entire population of Georgia, representatives of different denominations and confessions to condemn once and for all any expression of religious violence in this country.”
The appeal of the Baptist Cathedral Church was signed by 450 people and published by the daily newspaper, Dislis Gazeti, on June 12th.
The First Lady seeks cooperation with the Council of Interreligious Cooperation
June 10th the First Lady of Georgia, Mrs. Sandra Roelof-Saakashvili, visited the Council of Interreligious Cooperation upon the invitation of Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili.
“I would like to work closely with the main religions of the Georgia” said the first lady to the Council, “I was born into a Catholic family in South Holland, but when Misha and I got married I became Georgian Orthodox. I do not know much of religions, but I would like to learn”
Letter from the Angelical Fellow Bishop
The Presiding Bishop of the EBC received a letter from the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham James. This is what we read in the letter:
“My dear brother in Christ,
I am so glad to have an opportunity to send you my greetings and assure you of my continuing prayers. I hope the visit of our group from Norwich will be a blessing to you all. We often keep you in our minds and prayers. The courage and imagination of your people is inspiration to us. So too is your leadership and vision. We give thanks for our partnership in the Gospel and for the friendship in Christ that has been built between us.
May God bless you, my dear friend! I hope we will meet again soon.
Yours sincerely in Christ, Graham Noric”
Anglican friends of Georgia saddened by the Reaction of the Orthodox Authorities
From June 5 to 15 a group of Anglicans visited Georgia. This link between the Cathedral Baptist church and the Norwich Cathedral was established some 6 years ago owing to the friendship between the Baptist Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili and the Anglican Dean Stephen Platten (Now Bishop of Wakefield).
Over the past six years the Baptist and Anglican Cathedrals have arranged exchange visits both for clergy and members of the congregations. They have stayed in each other’s homes.
This partnership with Norwich includes the friendship with the Georgian Orthodox Church of St Panteleimon the Healer as well.
There is an ongoing program of fundraising for Georgia, which is contributing to social outreach projects set up by Orthodox and Baptist churches.
The Anglican guests were overwhelmed yet again by the customary Georgian hospitality and were able to see progress on many of the projects they had been supporting. They were particularly impressed by the Beteli Center.
The visit was going very well until the guests were saddened by the reaction of the Orthodox fundamentalists. On Sunday before going to the Cathedral Baptist Church for the 12 o’clock Evangelical mass they went to a 10 o’clock liturgy at the St Panteleimon’s church to attend the service and to meet their Orthodox friends. Next morning a priest on duty was celebrating the mass in the Church, when a telephone rang from the Patriarchate and asked the priest to stop the service because “the church had been desecrated” by the presence of Anglicans on the Sunday liturgy. Later on when the Patriarchate realized that the matter could cause an international scandal they withdrew.
The group of Anglican friends of Georgia wrote a letter addressing people of Georgia. In the letter we read:
”Last Sunday we joined our friends at St. Panteleimon for the morning service and it was good to be in God's house worshipping together. Later we were saddened to hear that our presence caused offence to some in the Orthodox Church, that it represented a desecration and that the church would need to be re-consecrated. We came to Georgia to foster ecumenical links, not to hinder or complicate them and we hoped there would have been rejoicing over our presence in the congregation. Only by such times together will the past centuries of failed communication be healed and the unity and love, which Our Lord Jesus Christ commanded, be brought closer. We pray that the Orthodox Church in Georgia continues to grow in strength and courage as it opens itself to welcome its brothers and sisters in Christ from other traditions.”
The letter was signed by all five members of the group: The Revd. Canon Graham Drake, Mrs.
Dorothy Spry, Mrs.Sylvia Dadd, Mr. Peter Dadd, Diana Beswick.