History

Ironically enough, the Peace Cathedral was not originally constructed for the purpose that it serves today. Initially, the building was built to house German prisoners of war during WWII. In the 1960’s the building was turned into a warehouse until finally, in 1972, the structure was handed over to the church and converted into what was known as the Tbilisi Baptist Congregation. The original church was pulled down by the Communist authorities; at the time, this was the only Baptist church in all of Georgia. During the fall of the Soviet Union, however, the church was renamed the Central Baptist Church due to the formation of the Baptist denomination in Georgia. Eventually, in 2006, the church was renamed to the Peace Cathedral as it was inducted into the Community of the Cross of Nails.

In 2003, the ecumenical movement observed a prayer for the unity of Christian churches. This movement included the two bodies of the World Council of Churches and the Conference of European Churches. These bodies consist of four churches: the Roman Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Apostolic Lutheran Church, and the Evangelical Baptist Church. Each year, one of the churches hosts the prayer as an act of unification of the Christian churches. In February of 2003, the Peace Cathedral was to host the ecumenical prayer on behalf of the Evangelical Baptist Church. However, the event was disrupted when a fundamentalist mob from the Orthodox church, orchestrated by the Georgian government, attacked the Peace Cathedral. After this aggressive display, the Peace Cathedral began to campaign to put an end to religious violence. The campaign garnered support from the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, Dr. Konrad Reiser, the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, Rowan Williams, and even the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, who wrote a letter urging the aggressors to end their acts of religious violence. The campaign resulted in the Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze coming to the Peace Cathedral for the first time in history in order to address the event, apologize for the attack, and pledge to put an end to religious discrimination.
After the Second Chechen War in 2000, many Chechen refugees fled to the nearest country for shelter, Georgia. The Chechens have not had a good track record with the Georgian people. Chechens have always been viewed as invaders of Georgia. The Chechen people came to Georgia and lived in the mountains of the Pankisi with no resources. It was at this time that the Central Baptist Church was confronted with the issue and decided to take action. Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili reached out to colleagues, hoping to raise a meager amount of $500 U.S. dollars. The next morning, when the bishop checked his email, he had received over $15,000 to support the Chechens living in the mountains. In total, the efforts raised around $300,000, which allowed the church to continue supporting the Chechen people as well as other marginalized groups in Georgia for the next 7 years. For this relationship and aid to the Chechen people, the Community of the Nail of Crosses invited the Central Baptist Church to be an official member. In 2006, the church changed its name to the Peace Cathedral. The Peace Cathedral now makes an effort to make everyone feel welcome and to promote peaceful relations between religious groups, and to continue fighting for the marginalized members of society.