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How old was Jesus when Georgia Became Christian?

In November 22-26 the UNESCO and the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate organized the celebration of >>2000 years of Christianity in Georgia<<.

 

There were lots of events related to the celebration: concerts, exhibitions, conferences, dinners. The Evangelical Baptist Church was invited to participate in all those events.

 

“I was really delighted to attend some of those events and about the fact that we were invited to attend,” says Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili, “but I think there is something rather embarrassing about it. If Christianity has really begun in Georgia 2000 years ago then we should believe that we were converted by Christ when he was 4 years old. How the Georgian organizers could convince the UNESCO that Christianity has been in Georgia for two thousand years remains a mystique for me.”

 

“I personally believe that the conversion of Georgia is still being continued even though Christianity came to this land in 326-37.” concluded the Bishop.

 

Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili and the Revd. Merab Gaprindashvili were among those honorary guests who were led to the Cathedral on the red carpet through the two long lines of soldiers, who had been lined up from the gate of the cathedral wall to the Cathedral itself.

 

 

Consecration of the Orthodox Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi

On November 23, the day of the first anniversary of the Revolution of Roses, the Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi was consecrated.

 

This is the largest Cathedral that has ever been constructed not only in Georgia but in the regions of South Caucasus. The building costs about 200 million USD.  It has been constructed in the style of traditional Georgian Church Architecture.

 

For some people, including President Saakashvili and the Orthodox Patriarch Ilia II, the Cathedral became a symbol of national unity and spiritual revival. For others it is the last symbol of megalomaniac legacy of the Soviet time. Others think it is not a Christian project at all.

 

Fr. Basil Kobakhidze has openly identified it with a pyramid built for the glory of some people and not for the glory of God.  (In 1996, when the foundation was laid, two names were inserted in the foundation document: President Shevardnadze and Catholicos Patriarch Ilia II.)

 

Among the official guests at the consecration there were the leaders of minority religious communities of Georgia.   Georgian Baptist Church was represented at the consecration by Bishop Malkhaz, Pastor Merab Gaprindashvili and Gregory Levinetz.

 

A few days later the Patriarch invited the religious leaders to the Patriarchate in order to thank them for their presence at the consecration. Bishop Malkhaz thanked the Patriarch for the kind invitation to attend the consecration liturgy and the opportunity sharing the joy of the Orthodox Church.  In response to the Baptist Bishop the Patriarch said: “We should share not only with each other our joy but the sorrows as well.” At the end of the reception all the religious leaders were given bottles of the Patriarchate wine and a huge book, titled “Georgia the Light of Christ” composed by a number of contributors.

 

Tree Planting

November 30^th. forty fruit trees were planted in the garden of the Home of mentally handicapped children in Tbilisi.  It is the best institution of its nature in the country. It functions under the patronage of Mrs. Nino Zvania, the wife of the Georgian Prime minister.

 

The funds for the trees were delivered by David and Yona Pusey of the United Kingdom who themselves participated in tree planting. Yona Pusey is the former President of the European Baptist Women’s Union.

 

“We planted various trees apple trees, pomegranate trees, fig trees... I am particularly interested to see how the walnut tree grows which I planted together with my Orthodox friends Archpriest Michael Asatian and Priest Zaza Tevzadze.” said Bishop Malkhaz “We teach our ministerial students that one of the church’s mission is to be involved in stewarding the recourses of the creation.  Tree planting is one of the noble activities Christians should be involved. We may have different theological and ecclesiological understandings with others, yet we can plant trees together.”

 

 

Episcopal Visitation to South East Georgia

December 28-29, Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili visited the South Eastern region of Georgia called Kiziki. The region has maintained a lot of sub-cultural features within the Georgian culture. Their people have always been known for their love of freedom. “We never had masters” proudly say they. They consider it as an offence if you address them with ‘Batono’ (master), as you do in the rest of Georgia.

 

A. Eucharistic hospitality in Tsnori Baptist Church

The Bishop delivered a sermon on Sunday and celebrated the Eucharist being assisted by the local minister, the Revd. Zurab Kakashvili. “We are somehow ‘trapped’ between two comings of Jesus. On this first week of the Advent we remember the first coming of our Lord, his incarnation and his second coming, which is the belief of the Church of Christ and its apostolic legacy. In this interval between two comings, we as Christians are called to be one, as the Father and the Son are one,” maintained the bishop. The service was attended by some Orthodox believers from the local Orthodox parish church. They were so moved by the service and the sermon that they asked whether they would be allowed to participate in the Eucharist. “This is the Lord’s Table and therefore, those who are communicant members of the churches that believe in the Most Holy Trinity, are welcome to participate. This is the Eucharistic hospitality of our church extended to the members of our sister churches.” explained the bishop and gave himself the blessed elements to seven Orthodox believers.  At the end of the service the bishop was asked to answer questions related to the reforms within the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia.  The congregation was satisfied to get exhaustive answers they had been waiting for.

 

The congregation had been straggling for last few years because of pressure from German Baptist fundamentalists (Immigrants from the former USSR). “Sometime ago one of their representatives told us, that we would get one container full of goods coming from Germany, providing that we would give up our loyalty to the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia,”

Revd. Kakashvili said to the Bishop.

 

B. Mission Station in the village of Khirsa

The same evening the Bishop and the minister visited a small mission station in the village of Khirsa. It is one of the most beautiful villages in the area. Unfortunately it is very isolated from the life of the region. They do not have their own administration, nor any infrastructure.

 

C. Local Governor of Signagi

Next day the bishop and the local minister joined by the General Secretary of the EBCG, Revd. Merab Gaprindashvili, and Mr. Alexander Chkubianishvili, visited together the governor of the district, Mr. Asanishvili, They spoke about the ministries of the Church in Georgia. The governor on the other hand shared his vision for the district and the district center city of Signagi, which has been deserted by 40 % of the population during the last decade because of economical hardship.

 

E. Mentally handicapped children in Bodbe

The same day the delegation visited a house and school of mentally underdeveloped children in Bodbe. “It was a visit to an unreal world. Even though the sun was shining it was cold weather at freezing temperature. In the ruins of a Soviet type building with broken windows children were sitting in classes dressed in torn and dirty clothes. No heating! The only room that was heated in this huge and ugly building was the teachers’ office.” says the bishop. “We spend about half an hour listening to the deputy director of the institution telling us atheistically how well they are taking care of the children. I had the feeling that we were still in Brezhnev’s time.”

The visitors left the institution with heavy hearts and determined to do something for the poor children.

 

School of Abraham

December 13 a new School of Abraham was established at the Beteli Center. The idea of the school came into being at the visit of an ABC delegation in Georgia last February.

 

25 Students from different parts of Georgia came to the Center for a week long introduction course in Monotheistic religions. The school will work after the pattern of the School of Elijah and will hold classes four times a year for the period of three years.

 

Georgian Baptist Christmas Appeal

Usually the Cathedral Baptist Church celebrates Christmas with a 9 hours long vigil.  This year it was extremely short. It went for 6 hours only! There was no overnight vigil this time. 

 

This year the service started at 9 am and was over by 3 p.m. At 2 o’clock after the Evangelical mass celebrated by Bishop Malkhaz and Pastor Merab Gaprindashvili a very spectacular procession of Georgian and Ukrainian flags entered the cathedral church. Special pre-composed prayers were offered by members of the congregation for the Ukrainian elections. The Baptist Bishop and the Chairman of the International Relations of the Georgian Parliament Dr. Kote Gabashvili spoke to the congregation about the significance of the Ukrainian elections that were to take place next day, on December 26.

 

The appeal to pray for fair elections in the Ukraine was initiated by the Georgian Baptists.  A lot of people and churches responded to the appeal. They prayed for the elections at their own churches at 2 p.m. Tbilisi time. Some friends of the Baptist Bishop sent prayers to be read during the service.

 

After the service members of the congregation and guests went together to the Ukrainian Embassy where they had a manifestation in support of fair elections. 

 

 

Tsunami and Georgia

January 10, 2005 the Cathedral Baptist Church hosted an Ecumenical Memorial service in memory of Asian Tsunami victims. The service was attended by representatives and clergy of Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran and Evangelical Baptist churches. On the wall behind the altar devastating pictures of the Tsunami disaster were shown. Representatives of the Georgian government, civil society and Asian students, studying in Georgia, brought flower arrangements to the altar, as Archpriest Basil Kobakhidze and Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili read memorial prayers in Georgian and English. At the end of the service all the participants of this very moving service lit candles in memory of the departed and collected funds to be sent to the BWAid that is heavily involved in the relief work in Asia.

 

The entire congregation was engaged in responsorial reading of St John of Damascus’s prayer:

“Alas! What an agony the soul endures when from the body it is parting; how many are her tears for weeping, but there is none that will show compassion: unto the angels she turns with downcast eyes; useless are her supplications; and unto men she extends her imploring hands, but finds none to bring her rescue.”

 

The Sermon at the service was delivered by Bishop Malkhaz. “Science has an answer why disaster happen and we as the Church do not have answers as well,” he said , “ The science has no answer as to how to comfort the bereaved, we as the Church do have the answer. Whatever we do for the suffering, we do it for Christ. This is our faith. This is why I wish I was there in Asian countries to weep over the dead bodies of Asian Tsunami victims like over the body of Christ, On TV I saw devastating images of people being buried in the mud like cats and dogs. I felt a very strong priestly call to go there with Fr. Basil and burry “Christs” with dignity. We could not afford to do so. But we can afford to mourn today together over “the dead Christs” with the power of the Christ of the Resurrection.”

 

All the main TV channels of Georgia reported about the service and commented that this service was the only reaction in the Georgian society on this global tragedy. In the interview to the main channels Bishop Malkhaz said “When something happens in Georgia we anticipate that the entire world comes to help us, but when such a global disaster takes place unfortunately the Georgian society has no reaction. Perhaps it has to do with our Soviet legacy that we do not care much about the needs of others. I hope after this service our government may take some actions.”

 

The Georgian government and the Georgian Orthodox church reacted to the challenge of the Baptist bishop by donating of 100 000 GEL in aid to the disaster affected areas and establishing a relief trust.

 

 

Christmas Greetings

The head of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia has received a lot of Christmas and New Year greetings from a number of friends and acquaintances including messages from President Saakashvili , Prime Minister Zvania and Catholicos Patriarch of Georgia Ilia II.