Georgian Patriarch suspends Holy Communion ban for former Kvemo Kartli official amid investigation

The Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate has suspended a decree issued by the Diocese of Marneuli and Hujabi, which had banned Giorgi Shinjikashvili, former deputy governor of Kvemo Kartli, from receiving Holy Communion. The suspension was signed by Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II on June 21 following a recommendation from the Synodal Commission.

The commission, which met in expanded format on June 19, reviewed the case and advised the Patriarch to halt the ban pending further clarification of details. According to the Patriarchate, the suspension is in place “until additional facts related to the case are clarified.”

The original ban, issued by the diocesan ecclesiastical court on June 6, accused Shinjikashvili of attempting to murder Bishop Giorgi Jamdeliani of the Marneuli and Hujabi Diocese. The court's ruling, signed by Bishop Jamdeliani himself, declared that Shinjikashvili should be barred from communion “until he shows sincere repentance,” and if repentance is shown, be subjected to a 20-year ban from communion in accordance with Canon 56 of St. Basil the Great.

The ecclesiastical court had heard testimony from Shinjikashvili and the accuser, a nun identified as T.K., likely referring to Thekla Kublashvili, as well as other witnesses and reviewed additional evidence.

Public awareness of the ruling grew only after Bishop Jamdeliani spoke about it during a sermon on June 8, describing the alleged murder plot in dramatic terms: “For a year they were pressuring the nun, telling her either to poison my food or they would give her something to put on my skin — and within an hour I would be dead. This is the situation in the diocese,” he said from the pulpit.

Later that day, the Prosecutor’s Office launched a criminal investigation into the alleged plot under charges of attempted premeditated murder.