Bishop Jeremias (Tsamalaidze) of the GOC in Georgia Found Dead Under Strange Circumstances

(Tbilisi) A Bishop of the GOC under Metropolitan Anghelos of Avlonos, and son of a dissenting Bishop of the Georgian Patriarchate who first joined the Old Calendar Synod, was found dead Wednesday at his home in Tbilisi. Bishop Jeremias (Tsamalaidze), son of Bishop Christopher (Tsamalaidze, a Bishop of the Patriarchate of Georgia who spoke forcefully about sexual abuse scandals in the Georgian Patriarchate decades before), precipitating his removal from the Synod, was at the center of media attention in the wake of yet another sexual abuse scandal; Georgian news organization Rustav 2 had mentioned that Bishop Jeremias (formerly Fr Jason) had made comments about sexual abuse by a rector Zozimas of the seminary a few days before.

Of course, such an accusation alone is not usually a reason to kill a True Orthodox Bishop, unless of course sexual scandals in the Georgian hierarchy in the past week have made international news already and such news just made it worse. Then it becomes a bit more problematic.