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Giorgi Gabedava, candidate for Tbilisi City Council. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–A group of Orthodox Christian activists protest against the international evangelistic Festival of Hope to be held in Georgia and call on people not to attend.

Clerics and their supporters gathered at a church in Didube, the district of Tbilisi where the festival is planned, and were joined by Georgi Gabedava, an independent candidate for Tbilisi City Council in June 15’s local elections, well known by his extreme conservative views.

Their message was that attending such meetings is forbidden for Orthodox believers.


Protesters said the organizers of the Festival of Hope have lied to people, claiming that the event was music festival while it actually is a Baptist-evangelistic meeting.

That is why they came there; to inform people. They brought big posters asking people not to attend this evangelistic meeting.

Several Orthodox protesters stood at the entrance, asking every person going in not to enter. Some of the comments by the Orthodox were: “How much did they pay? Don’t sell your soul for money.” “Do you know where you are going? They are lying, it’s an evangelistic meeting.” “At least don’t let your child in.”

It appears most attendees were aware what kind of event they were going to.

The event has been announced a long time in advance and was to have been held at Sport’s Palace, but a few days ago, the heads of that large event hall wrote a letter to the organizers of the festival that there were some technical problems because of a fire in one foyer, so they could not host the event.

Organizers of the Festival of Hope believe the fire was just a pretext for refusing to host the event.