The official statement of the Georgian Patriarchate clarifies that there are no plans to set a date for an expanded meeting of the Georgian Orthodox Church to elect a new Catholicos Patriarch at the current meeting.
Earlier, some media outlets, citing supposedly reliable sources, suggested that a special meeting would be held in the Patriarchate on Monday, where the date of the meeting of the Holy Synod would be announced. However, this information is not true.
The message emphasizes that the agenda is of a normal working nature, and the issue of the timing of the expanded council is not on the agenda.
It is known that the expanded meeting is to be held no later than May 17 at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Tbilisi. To win, a candidate will need to get more than half of the votes — at least 20.
On April 28, the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church selected three candidates for the patriarchal throne.:
• Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Metropolitan Shio Mujiri of Senak and Chorotskui;
• Metropolitan Ruiz of Urbnisi Job;
• Metropolitan Grigol of Poti and Khob.
Ilia II, Catholicos Patriarch of All Georgia, passed away on March 17 at the age of 94 due to kidney, lung and heart failure. His patriarchate became the longest in the history of the Georgian Orthodox Church.