The Russian and Georgian Orthodox Churches intend to continue dialogue on the spiritual guidance of the population of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"We agreed to exchange delegations between the Russian and Georgian Churches. A delegation from the Russian Orthodox Church will visit Tbilisi to continue dialogue," head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad told reporters in Moscow after a meeting between Patriarch Alexy II and a delegation from the Georgian Orthodox Church.

Asked how the dialogue was proceeding, he said that given the existence of a "non-canonical structure in South Ossetia", the problem should be solved "in a strictly canonical field with the observance of canonical norms in order to discuss this theme with the Georgian side".

"At present the South Ossetian Church is led by a schismatic," he said.

Head of the Georgian Patriarchate Foreign Relations Department Metropolitan Gerasim of Zugdidi and Tsaishi, for his part, told reporters after meeting with Alexy II that South Ossetia and Abkhazia were "a canonical territory of the Georgian Patriarchate".

"Georgian priests should serve there but regrettably, under the present circumstances they have no such opportunity," he said.

"We agreed with His Holiness Patriarch Alexy and Reverend Father Kirill to discuss these issues little by little quietly and wisely - how to guide and help people who live there", the archbishop said.

He added that the issue of the spiritual guidance of Abkhazia and South Ossetia was "the most sensitive and complicated one and cannot be resolved overnight".

"We are satisfied with today's meeting. We showed both Georgia and Russia that our Churches have not lost connections between them in the absence of diplomatic, political, economic or cultural ties between Georgia and Russia," the Georgian cleric said.

Source: Interfax-Religion