His All-Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, will depart early in the morning on Sunday, March 22, for Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, to attend the funeral service of the deceased Patriarch of Georgia, His Holiness Ilia II, which will take place at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, and to personally express the Mother Church's sympathy and condolences to the Holy Church, the clergy, monks and nuns, the authorities, and the faithful people of the country — this information is disseminated by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

According to their information, accompanying the Ecumenical Patriarch to Georgia will be: the most senior Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, the Grand Etaireiarches, Director of the Patriarch's Private Office; the Grand Archdeacon Alexander; the head of the Georgian parish in Constantinople, Archimandrite Ilia Jinjolava; as well as the Director of the Press and Communications Service of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Nikolaos-Georgios Papachristou, and the Patriarchate employee Panagiotis Grafiadellis.

"By God's will, the Ecumenical Patriarch and his accompanying persons will return to the City on the same day," states the announcement from the Ecumenical Patriarchate.