Your Excellency, Madam
President,
Your Excellency, Mr. Speaker of
the Parliament,
Dear Guests, Ladies and
Gentlemen!
Your Holiness and Beatitude, I
cordially congratulate you on being awarded this outstanding
award!
Today we are especially
reflecting on the great work you have done for decades in the field
of science and education.
You say: “Science plays a crucial
role in the development of any country. Can science and faith
contradict each other when they belong to completely different
areas of human creative thought? One is physical and the other is
spiritual. They do not even oppose, but complement each other.
Science is blessed by God; it is the attainment of a human
intellect as an image of God.”
From the very first years of your
enthronement, your special attention was concentrated on the
relationship between the Church and the intelligentsia.
In the public consciousness of
the Soviet period, the Church had an insignificant place, and had
it not been for your farsighted goals and great efforts to bring
the intellectual part of society closer to the Church, we would not
have such high-level educational centers today.
You believed that the cultural
and intellectual revival of Georgia should start with spirituality
and the spirituality of science and intelligentsia would become a
precondition for the renewal of our country.
Many people, leading their
activities in different scientific fields, have continued their
work in the field of theology and have been actively involved in
research in its various fields and in the spiritual and educational
processes, which is the result of your efforts.
When meeting with scientific
circles and the representatives of intelligentsia, you always
emphasized that “intelligentsia must help people to know the truth;
but how can they cope with that if they themselves are cut off from
the source of divine wisdom — the Church? ... Intelligentsia must
become a part of the community, which, like a lighted candle,
illuminates the path of the nation from darkness towards
God.”
Over the years, you met
practicing teachers as well as scientists in the field of pedagogy
and psychology. You attach special importance to profound thinking
and believe that the bright future of Georgia depends on the
education and knowledge of the society.
You answer the idea, that puts
knowledge and faith as contradictory phenomena, in the words of
Maximus the Confessor: “Knowledge, fearless of God, gives birth to
arrogance.”
As the result of your great
merit, personal authority and exquisite diplomatic talent, Tbilisi
Theological Academy was inaugurated in 1988. Following the
abolition of autocephaly, it was the revival of the great
educational tradition, which the Church of Georgia historically had
in the form of various scientific centers. Mtskheta Theological
Seminary also moved to Tbilisi together with the Academy.
In 1995, St. Gabriel the Bishop
Theological Seminary was established in Kutaisi, and Gelati
Theological Academy was restored. In the same year, Gelati Academy
of Sciences was established in Kutaisi.
In 2005, you were elected as an
Honorary Academician of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences.
In the same year, the International Charitable Foundation of the
Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia – “Revival and Development of
Spirituality, Science and Culture” - was established.
In 2008, St. Andrew the
First-Called Georgian University of the Georgian Patriarchate was
founded.
In 2009, St. Abuseridze of Tbeti
University of the Georgian Patriarchate was established in Khulo,
Adjara region. In the same year, Saint Queen Tamar Institute of
Medicine was established, which in 2011 was transformed into a
university. In the same year, the Vocational Education College of
St. Ekvtime Man of God working under the supervision of the
Patriarchate was founded.
In 2012, the Institute of
Decorative Horticulture was transformed into the Decorative
Horticulture College of the Patriarchate of Georgia. In the same
year, the High School of Folk Song and Singing working at the
Theological Academy and Seminary was transformed into Saint Giorgi
the Athonite University of the Patriarchate of Georgia.
At present, as the result of your
great efforts, we have:
Two theological academies;
Four universities;
Eight theological
seminaries;
Six vocational education
institutions;
Twenty-two general education
schools;
Twelve gymnasiums;
Eight boarding houses;
Three parochial schools;
Thirteen educational research and
youth centers.
Over the years, a number of
theological works, journals, newspapers, theological, philosophical
and historical studies or translations were published.
Your Holiness and Beatitude, the
result of such selfless work is that the Georgian scientists,
writers, representatives of the creative intelligentsia consider
you the protector and great caretaker of the nation’s intellectual
potential.
Grateful for all this, we pay
homage to you.
May God bless your life for many
more years to come!