Today, a new 142nd Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia will be elected at the expanded council of the Georgian Orthodox Church.

The council will take place at the Holy Trinity Cathedral (“Sameba”) and will begin at 1:00 PM Tbilisi time.

About 1,200 delegates will participate in the church council. Speeches by the candidates for the patriarchal throne, as well as representatives of the dioceses, are scheduled during the meeting. In addition, one scholar will present a historical overview related to the title of the Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia.

The expanded church council will be partially broadcast live on the First Channel of Georgia. In particular, the opening of the council and the voting process will be shown live. During the counting of votes, the broadcast will be suspended, and the final voting results will then be announced live. The results will be announced by the chairman of the vote-counting commission, Metropolitan Anania.

Attendance at the church council in Sameba Cathedral will be possible only through special admission lists compiled in accordance with the regulations of church administration.

At the same time, the restriction does not apply to the cathedral courtyard — during the expanded council, anyone wishing to attend will be able to enter the courtyard of the cathedral.

Only bishops participate in the vote to elect the Catholicos-Patriarch. The candidate who receives more than half of the votes of the bishops participating in the council — in this case, 20 votes — will be considered elected Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia.

If no candidate receives more than half of the votes, a second round of voting will be held. The two candidates who received the highest number of votes in the first round will participate in it.

On April 28, during a session of the Holy Synod at the Patriarchate, Synod members selected three candidates for the patriarchal throne.

The candidates are: the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Shio (Mujiri) of Senaki and Chkhorotsku; Metropolitan Iob (Akiashvili) of Mroveli-Urbnisi; and Metropolitan Grigol (Berbichashvili) of Poti and Khobi.

During the vote to select the candidates, locum tenens Shio received 20 votes, while the other two candidates received 7 votes each.

The procedure for electing the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia is defined by the statute of the Georgian Church administration, adopted on September 18–19, 1995, at the 13th expanded council of the Georgian Church held at Svetitskhoveli Cathedral.

The date of the enthronement of the new patriarch will also be announced today. The elected patriarch himself will decide on the enthronement date.

The 141st Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, Ilia II, passed away on March 17 at the age of 93.