According to Metropolitan Vakhtang of Tsurtavi, today’s session of the Holy Synod will address the education and age requirements for a candidate for Patriarch.

As he stated, the Holy Synod must decide whether the maximum age for a Patriarchal candidate will remain 70 or be extended by an additional two years.

“Serious decisions will be made [at the Synod session], in the sense that a more concrete framework needs to be established. We must review the statute on governance and administration. The issues of education and age will be discussed. The procedure is something that is subject to deliberation. Everyone will have their say and express specific opinions, and we will reach a conclusion.

There are issues regulated by law and statute, and there are issues where decisions must be made based on specific considerations. These include age - how the Patriarchal age limit should be defined. A candidate must be at least 40 years old, while the current maximum is 70. A person may turn 70 within a matter of days or even months, so we need to make a principled decision: whether it should remain 70 or be extended by two years. Everything is possible - it depends on how we, the members of the Synod, decide.

The second issue is education. It is good when a person has higher secular education, but it is essential that a Patriarchal candidate has theological education - this is a mandatory requirement. A person may have graduated from Harvard, but theological education is still necessary. This is something that must be decided. A Patriarchal candidate must have theological education and, in general, be an educated individual,” said Metropolitan Vakhtang in an interview with TV Pirveli.

For reference, today, April 3, at 12:00, a session of the Holy Synod will be held at the Patriarchate of Georgia, convened by the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Metropolitan of Senaki and Chkhorotsku, Shio (Mujiri).