Abkhaz Orthodox Church

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The Pizunda Cathedral from the 10th century, formerly the seat of the Abkhaz patriarchs.
Monastery founded by Russians in Novy Afon , 19./20. Century

The Abkhazian Orthodox Church ( Russian Абхазская Православная церковь ) is a non-canonical Orthodox Church on the territory of the internationally unrecognized Republic of Abkhazia .

Catholic of Abkhazia

The present-day Abkhazian Orthodox Church refers to the history of the temporarily independent Church of Abkhazia, which developed in the Kingdom of Abkhazia in the 8th century. This was preceded by the Christianization of the Colchis (Lasike; Western Georgia) from Byzantium from the 4th to the 6th century. The first hierarch of Abkhazia initially resided in Pizunda and Poti ( Mingrelia ), but later in the Gelati monastery near Kutaisi ( Imereti ). Probably from the 9th century, demonstrably not until much later, the supreme bishop of Western Georgia carried the title of Catholic , but without giving up subordination to the Georgian Catholicos Patriarch of Mtskheta . It was not until the 15th century that it became fully independent, and from the 16th century the Catholicos of Abkhazia (in addition) took on the title of patriarch . The most important patriarch was Eudaimon I. Chkhetidze (1543–1578), who initiated a joint synod of the Abkhazian and Georgian churches to restore the liturgy. In 1814, after Georgia was fully incorporated into the Russian Empire , the independent patriarchate in Abkhazia expired.

Eudaimon I. Chkhetidze, fresco in Gelati

In the following period Abkhazia was part of the Tbilisi exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church as the Eparchy Sukhumi / Abkhazia , and then, after regaining its autocephaly , the Georgian Orthodox Church .

Todays situation

On September 15, 2009, in a meeting of clergy, the separation of Abkhazia from the Georgian Orthodox Church was unilaterally decided and announced the following day by the administrator of the Sukhumi eparchy, the married priest Vissarion Apliaa . The Georgian Church immediately distanced itself from this statement. The Russian Orthodox Church also continues to count Abkhazia as part of the canonical territory of the Church of Georgia. Within the canonical Georgian Orthodox Church, Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II is also serving as Metropolitan of Sukhumi and Abkhazia.

Within the Abkhazian Orthodox Church, two wings of unequal size face each other: the majority under Vissarion Apliaa propagates a reference to the Moscow Patriarchate, the minority seeks the support of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople for the formation of an Abkhaz national church with the use of Abkhazian also in church services .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Aßfalg: Georgia, II. Church history . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 4, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-7608-8904-2 , Sp. 1284.
  2. Протокол заседания епархиального собрания Сухумо-Абхазской епархии от 15 сентября 2009 г.
  3. Georgian Patriarchate rejects the independence status of the Abkhazian Church , in: RIA Novosti, message from September 16, 2009.