Today Catherine Cosman, commission officer of International Religious Freedom and Rayan Koening the newly appointed counsellor to the US Ambassador in Georgia met with the members of the interreligious council existing within the State Agency for Religious Issues.

At the meeting the members of the council that unites almost all religious organizations existed in Georgia, talked about important issues to them and about cooperation between the state and religious organizations. They all unitarily mentioned about the agency’s special contribution to the improvement of this collaboration. Religious confessions positively assessed the decisions made by the State Agency for Religious Issues on financing religious organizations and restitution of cult buildings confiscated during the totalitarian regime.

Representative of Georgian Orthodox Church, Archpriest Aleksandre Galdava informed the guest about extremely difficult situation regarding conducting a worship at the occupied territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and let Catherine Cosman know about the arrest of Metropolitan Isaiah (Chanturia) of Nikozi and Tskhinvali Eparchy.

Rabbi Meir Kozlovsky expressed his opinion that the reports on freedom of religion in Georgia prepared by the international organizations and state departments in order to perceive the real situation should be based on coherent set of information from various sources.

Vazgen Mirzakhanyan, Archbishop of Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church said that the establishment of the State Agency for Religious Issues contributed to their problem solving and direct dialogue with the authorities.

Charles Hoblits the head of the American Baptist Church in Georgia thanked the chairman of the State Agency for Religious Issues for help and noted that today the situation in Georgia in terms of freedom of religion is perfect: “Today, in Georgia any believer has complete freedom to pray and conduct a religious service and this is not just words.

Giorgi Chitadze, Senior Pastor of the Evangelical-Protestant Church in Georgia said that the decisions made by the state on freedom of religion and financing deeply improved the situation of the Evangelical-Protestant community in Georgia. 

Ramin Igidov, Sheikh of All Georgia stressed the necessity of religious education and law on religion.

The member of the Yazidis religious congregation Nadri Aloyan thanked the government for the fact that Georgia is the first country in former Soviet Union where Yazidis have their own place of worship and the house of culture.

At the end of the meeting Catherine Cosman thanked the chairman of the State Agency for Religious Issues for organizing this meeting and the members of the religious organizations for providing such interesting information. She positively evaluated the current religious situation in Georgia and noted that she’s happy for open communication and cooperation that exists between the state and religious organizations in Georgia.