His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has sent a warm congratulatory message to His Holiness and Beatitude Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Shio III, wishing him a long, blessed and fruitful primacy, based on a statement released by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
“We received with great joy — both personally and together with all those serving at the Ecumenical Patriarchate — the happy news of Your Beatitude’s worthy election to the ancient and renowned Patriarchal Throne of All Georgia, following the newly departed and ever-memorable Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II, who rendered luminous and historic service to the venerable Church of Georgia and to Orthodoxy as a whole,” the letter reads.
“Accept our heartfelt congratulations, Your Beatitude, in brotherly love! We pray that you may be granted a long, blessed and fruitful primacy for the glory of God, for the well-being of your faithful flock, and for the peace and stability of the Georgian nation, as well as harmonious cooperation with us and the other primates of the Orthodox Churches for Orthodox unity, cooperation and common witness before the world,” the Ecumenical Patriarch wrote.
Bartholomew I of Constantinople extended his congratulations following the election of Shio III as the new head of the Georgian Orthodox Church after the passing of Ilia II.
