Protopresbyter Giorgi Zviadadze on Wednesday brushed off rumors that Georgian authorities are forcing the Georgian Orthodox Church to adopt another legal model. “The current relations between the government and the church is based on mutual respect.”

According to Giorgi Zviadadze, the state’s unofficial offer about the status of the state religion seeks to increase government support for the church.

“There was no official offer from the government to change the current legal model between the state and the church, which is a constitutional agreement. When this agreement was reached, it was preceded by a review of existing global legal arrangements between the church and the state.

As per the constitutional agreement, the church’s independence from the state is completely safeguarded, and the state has no authority to meddle in the church’s activities,” Protopresbyter said, adding that declaring Orthodox Christianity as the state religion “requires the principle of subordination and contains certain risks.”

“It implies a certain subordination to the state, and, naturally, the church is against it, but once again, I would like to emphasize that our current government does not intend to do so.

This proposal was at an unofficial level and, naturally, the Georgian Orthodox Church considers it best to maintain the current legal status,” Zviadadze told GPB First Channel.