“Today, as we speak with pride of our country’s Christian traditions, we must express our deepest gratitude to our spiritual father, His Holiness and Beatitude Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II, who revived the Georgian Orthodox Church and restored autocephaly to our Mother Church,” declared Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze in his address at the ceremonial event dedicated to Georgia’s Independence Day.

As Kobakhidze noted, it is patriotism and humanism, grounded in faith in the Lord, that constitute the force that has carried the country through so many trials in the past and will carry it through every trial yet to come.

“Just as Saint Ilia the Righteous did before him, Ilia II expressed in three words the paramount values upon which every Georgian’s sense of identity must be founded: ‘God, Motherland, Man.’ Experience has taught us that all patriotism and humanism which is not grounded in the fear of God and in faith is false. It is precisely patriotism and humanism founded upon faith in the Lord that is the force which has carried us through so many trials in the past, and which will carry us through every trial in the future,” the Prime Minister observed.

Irakli Kobakhidze then turned to address His Holiness and Beatitude Shio III, expressing his wish that the new Patriarch’s ministry should lay the foundation for yet another distinguished epoch in the history of the Mother Church.

“With deep reverence, I greet His Holiness and Beatitude Shio III, a Catholicos-Patriarch of rare distinction, elevated by the will of the Lord, by the testament of Ilia II, and with the support of the Holy Synod. I wish His Holiness and Beatitude that his ministry may serve as the foundation for yet another remarkable epoch in the history of our Mother Church,” Irakli Kobakhidze declared.