Shio Mujiri elected new Catholicos-Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church with 22 votes

57-year-old Shio Mujiri has been considered a potential successor to the late Ilia II since 2017. He served as the Catholicos-Patriarch's vicar for nine years. More than a thousand delegates from monasteries, other religious institutions, as well as public figures from the fields of science and culture took part in the election. The vote was conducted by the high-ranking clergy of the Holy Synod, and Metropolitan Shio received 22 out of 39 votes. In his speech, he stated that the Georgian Orthodox Church should continue to act as a guardian of national identity and a structure uniting the nation.