The Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, Ilia II, has approved a recommendation from the Mtskheta-Tbilisi Eparchial Commission, relieving Archimandrite Dorote Kurashvili of his duties as head priest of the Church of the Nativity (“Kvemobethlemi”) and reassigning him to serve as a priest at the Patriarchate’s Holy Trinity Lavra.
The commission, meeting today without Kurashvili’s attendance, concluded that the archimandrite continues to display “important disciplinary and moral violations,” including “slanderous statements” and other behaviours deemed unsuitable for clergy. As a consequence, the church body recommended his removal from the Bethlehem church posting and his reassignment to the Lavra community.
Kurashvili himself attended the building of the Patriarchate earlier, but refused to enter the October 29 hearing after being denied the presence of media representatives — a condition he insisted upon because the summons reportedly concerned his televised statements.
He responded to the commission’s decision by declaring:
“I will stay as I am; if they defrock me or not, both outcomes will be my victory — I am fighting the Russian regime, fighting those who have seized Georgia and the Georgian Church. I am being judged by Bidzina Ivanishvili and Russia … They found no ecclesiastical deviation in my words.”
Kurashvili accused Metropolitan Shio and Deacon Andria Jagmaidze of serving government-aligned interests and targeting him for supporting Georgia’s European path. On the other hand, church authorities frame the procedure as internal disciplinary review, emphasizing the importance of clerical ethics and the canonical process.
The move marks a highly visible clash between a vocal cleric and the Georgian Orthodox Church hierarchy, surfacing wider tensions over church-state relationships, the European direction of Georgia, and freedom of expression within ecclesiastical structures.
Image: Formula
Related story: Dorote Kurashvili: Defrocking me will still be a victory — I am fighting the Russian regime
