Russian Patriarch Kirill and Georgian Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II will discuss the Abkhaz Church. Igor Yakimchuk, spokesman of the Moscow Patriarchy, said that the Abkhaz Church needed more attention. It belonged to the Georgian Orthodox Church until the Georgian-Abkhaz war of the early 1990s. Abkhaz President Alexander Ankvab said in May 2013 that the local church depended on the Russian Orthodox Church, RIA Novosti reports.
Alexey Vlasov, Editor-in-Chief of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that those who wanted to take control over the Abkhaz Church were priests of Constantinople, such at Father Dbar, to expand their power. The influence of the Greek church can be seen in Albania, Korea and Estonia. A patriarch of Constantinople for the Abkhaz Church would most likely be a Greek bishop, the expert assumes.
Vlasov noted that people opposing Constantinople’s control were pointing out that the US was financing the Constantinople Patriarchy.
