His Holiness and Beatitude Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II congratulated His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus on his 75th birthday. The text of the congratulation was published on the website of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate on December 1, 2021.
“On behalf of the Georgian Orthodox Church and on behalf of me personally, please accept our congratulations on your 75th anniversary.
I have known you for a long time and I remember the tremendous efforts that you, as the head of the DECR, put into the development of the Russian Orthodox Church. I also remember the difficult circumstances in which you found yourself when you took steps unacceptable for the then government.
Your work has grown incomparably during the Patriarchal ministry, during which the social, missionary, building, educational directions rose to a new and high level, which is so important in our difficult time.
I would like to once again express my gratitude to you and the Russian Orthodox Church for the fact that, contrary to political interests, but observing the canons of the Church, you officially recognize our ancestral lands – Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region as an integral part of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
Our people and we are grateful, too, for the fact that you have repeatedly provided assistance in the release of our fellow citizens who were captured for violating the temporary borders.
Of course, there are still unresolved complex issues that create problems, but the hope for a better future is still alive, and our benevolence towards you is sincere.
Prayerfully we wish you long life, health and God’s grace, so that in the future you will faithfully serve both the Russian Orthodox Church and the unity of all Orthodoxy,” the Georgian Patriarch’s message of congratulations says.
The head of the Romanian Church also sent congratulations on the anniversary to the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Earlier, “analysts” close to the OCU stated that the Romanian and Georgian Patriarchs did not publish congratulations to the head of the Russian Church.
