Priest denies Russia was behind Abkhaz diocese’s secession from Georgia Church

Sukhumi, Sept 18, Interfax – The leader of Abkhazia’s Orthodox Christian community denied allegations in Georgia that the community’s decision to secede from the Georgian Orthodox Church had been the result of pressure from Russia.

“What pressure can one talk about? It is a hard decision that has been made by our laity and is aimed at rebuilding a spiritual world that has been destroyed,” Priest Vissarion Aplia told Interfax-Religion.

The decision to secede from the Georgian Church was the result of a conference that brought together all of Abkhazia’s clergy and decided to send a report about the meeting and a request for help and support to the Moscow Patriarchate, Fr. Vissarion said.

The Abkhaz Diocese plans to send requests to the same effect to the Georgian Church and other Orthodox Churches, “which will restore the historical truth by their determination,” he said.

“Our Church never was part of the Georgian Orthodox Church, it’s all a lot of stories, inventions of the communist regime. Stalin broke the canons in 1943, his decision was absolutely non-canonical,” Fr. Vissarion said.

Until 1795, there existed an independent Church in Abkhazia, he said.

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