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TBILISI, Georgia | The Patriarchate of Georgia says it faced pressure to help promote acceptance of same-sex marriage, as it rejected wording in a European Parliament report linking the Georgian Orthodox Church to a “Russian influence network.”
Archpriest Andria Jagmaidze, head of the Patriarchate’s Public Relations Service, called the wording regrettable and argued that policy toward the Church was fueling anti-European sentiment in Georgia.
In an interview with Imedi Week, Jagmaidze referred to a meeting that he said took place at the Patriarchate in August 2023 with Hadja Lahbib, then Belgium’s foreign minister. He said the incident was not made public at the time because Georgian society was already deeply polarized.
According to his account, the European official spoke about