Orthodox Patriarch calls for reconciliation of Russia and Georgia

Moscow, July 29 (ENINews)--Patriarch Ilia II of the Georgian Orthodox
Church has called on his Russian Orthodox counterpart to reconcile Russia and
Georgia, which have remained at odds since a short, bloody war in August
2008.

"Your Holiness, those political relations that have taken shape between
Russia and Georgia are completely unacceptable," he said to Patriarch Kirill
I, after co-celebrating the liturgy with the Russian Orthodox leader. "We
are close Orthodox peoples, and these relations were created by the envy of
our foes."

The service to mark the Day of the Baptism of Rus, the event in 988 that
brought Orthodoxy to Kievan Rusa and then Russia, was meant in particular as
a show of unity among the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian Orthodox
churches under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. Ukraine has
experienced tensions between rival Orthodox churches since the collapse of the
Soviet Union.