They want to cause division in the Church - Guram Macharashvili

According to the statement of the Executive Secretary of the People's Power Party, Guram Macharashvili, those political groups and organizations that have been criticizing the Church and the Patriarchate for years are only interested in the activities of the Synod to provoke internal confrontation.

According to him, the "National Movement", the NGOs affiliated with them and "foreign forces" were not interested in either the Patriarchate or the Church in the past, but on the contrary, they insulted and criticized them.

“What will happen at the Synod session is quickly becoming a matter of interest. In general, when did they become interested in what is happening in the Synod, what is written in the regulations of the management board, or what will happen in the church in the future? Why did they become interested, when they say from beginning to end that there is darkness there and so on? They became interested precisely because they want to somehow cause a split in the church. There can be no other explanation for this,” said Macharashvili.

According to his own assessment, those people who are now coming out with the desire to “care” for the future of the church have insulted the clergy and the patriarch in the past.

“These people, who come out and pretend to care about future church relations, were cursing the church and saying that starting with the patriarch and ending with the clergy, nothing civilized came from them. Now that you are interested in what is happening there, it means that you want to cause a certain division there,” he noted.

According to Guram Macharashvili, the members of the Synod should be given the opportunity to make decisions independently and in a calm environment.

“Let the Synod, let the people who work in the Patriarchate wait. The Synod will be held calmly, peacefully, and whoever the Synod elects will be the Patriarch,” Macharashvili said.

According to him, it is in his interest that the course that the Patriarch had continued in the church.

"My interest is that the direction that the Patriarch had continues in the Synod, as in the Church as a whole. This is not only my interest, but also the interest of the parish and the interest that the Patriarch had - he voiced this during his lifetime. We hear manipulations that the Patriarch did not say this and did not say that. About eight years ago, he very clearly stated who he wanted to be the enthroned and, accordingly, he continued to position himself throughout these years," said Guram Macharashvili.