My respect and solidarity to Father Dorote Kurashvili!, writes Georgia's fifth President, Salome Zurabishvili, on social media.

Salome Zurabishvili is responding to the conclusion of the Patriarchate's Diocesan Commission, which appealed to the Patriarch to relieve Archimandrite Dorote Kurashvili of his duties as head of the Lower Bethlehem Church and assign him to priestly service at the Holy Trinity Lavra.

"You cannot escape responsibility—those of you hiding behind the Patriarch's name and wanting to burden him with the weight of your decision—but you will not succeed in stifling the truthful word and freedom. The Georgian Church has endured this and more, and it will endure again!" Zurabishvili writes on Facebook.

For information, following the Diocesan Commission of the Patriarchate, the Patriarchate published a decree signed by Patriarch Ilia II, according to which Archimandrite Dorote Kurashvili is relieved of his position as head of the Church of the Nativity of Our Savior in Lower Bethlehem and appointed as a priest at the Holy Trinity Patriarchal Cathedral.