religious situation in the country which represents a threat to the state," after an attack against a church in the capital Tbilisi, last week.
In an open letter to the president received by BosNewsLife Wednesday, January 29, they expressed outrage about violence at the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia which was hosting the Day of Ecumenical Prayer on Friday, January 24.
"When all the bishops, clergymen, the faithful, representatives of different layers of our society and representatives of embassies accredited in Tbilisi started to gather at the Cathedral Baptist church, they were attacked by a well organized group of hooligans," the church leaders said.
The letter was signed by Evangelical Baptist Church Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili, Orthodox Archpriest Basil Kobakhidze, Catholic Bishop Giuseppe Pasotto as well as Bishop Gert Hummel of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and Achmandrite Vaszgen Mizahranian of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
HOOLIGANS
They claimed the hooligans were lead by Basil Mkalavishvili a "defrocked Orthodox" priest. "They physically and verbally insulted clergymen, the faithful. They penetrated the church building and raided the sanctuary. They tore religious literature and forcefully occupied both the church and the entrance to the church."
The leading Christians said that "the leader of hooligans was threatening and insulting verbally all the people who had came to the Cathedral church and prevented them to enter the sanctuary in order to hold the service there."
They criticized the police for apparently doing little to provide security. "Even though the police had been warned about the service a few days earlier by the organizers of the ecumenical prayer service, they showed up at the spot with delay." It was not clear if there were seriously wounded people in Friday’s attack.
VIOLENCE
However the church leaders suggested that "the violence targeted towards all Christian churches in Georgia is indicating…a most intolerable situation" and "makes us think that exterior forces are planning to cause a great damage to our country even in the religious sphere."
They described the event as one of the most serious situations since the different denominations began celebrating the day of Christian unity in Georgia for the last five years, every year in different churches.
"We have addressed you several times about issues related with religious violence that used to take place against particular churches, but the authorities have not taken any radical and preventive steps," the church leaders wrote to Shevardnadze.
EXTREMISTS
"This has encouraged those extremists to attack all Christian churches one and the same time. Ironically that happened on the day of Christian unity. Things that are taking place in Tbilisi and in some other places are now starting to overwhelm the country. Time has come that both authorities and society raise their voice against religious terrorism."
The letter writers demand from the President to push authorities "make adequate decisions for safeguarding the constitutional right of freedom of conscience." Several Christian churches and other groups are not protected under the current constitutional agreement legislation with the Orthodox Church.
The church leaders, who seek an urgent meeting with the president, also demand "concrete actions" that "will clearly underline the political orientation that has been chosen by Georgia." These latest religious difficulties comes as the former Soviet republic of over 5 million people is still suffering under the aftermath of civil wars that broke out after the country became a separate country when the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991.
