Sacred Space, Shared Ground: The Peace Cathedral Model of Radical Hospitality

Born in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1963, Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili is a lifelong advocate for religious liberty, human rights, and interfaith dialogue. He serves as Metropolitan Bishop of Tbilisi and Senior Minister of the Peace Cathedral—a pioneering community that brings together Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Yazidis, and people of no faith in shared sacred space. He is also Professor of Comparative Theology at Ilia State University.

Educated at Tbilisi State University and Oxford, Dr. Songulashvili was ordained in 1994 and served for nearly two decades as Primate of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia, leading its transformation into one of the most progressive Christian traditions in the post-Soviet world. A prolific Bible translator and scholar, his academic work includes Evangelical Christian Baptists of Georgia (Baylor University Press, 2015).

His peacebuilding ministry has taken him to conflict zones across the Middle East and former Soviet states, working with Chechen refugees, supporting democracy movements in Ukraine and Belarus (where he was arrested and deported), and building bridges with religious leaders in Najaf, Qum, Karbala, Lalish, and Jerusalem. For his work, he has received the Lambeth Cross, the Cross of Nails from Coventry Cathedral, the Doha International Award for Interfaith Dialogue, and the House of One Peace Prize (2023).

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