The Centre held 3rd international symposium under the patronage of state and church:
  
The peace symposium and forum, opened on 9 October, 2008, in Tbilisi, in the conference hall of the Hotel Sheraton Metekhi Palace, was attended by representatives of the Georgian government and the foreign diplomatic corps accredited to Georgia. The symposium was attended by up to a hundred scholars representing Armenia, the Czech Republic, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Russia.

 

His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II stated: Dialogue between civilizations in the process of globalization contributes to the preservation of spiritual, cultural and scholarly values of small nations.

Academician Davit Muskhelishvili, head of the organizing committee of the symposium and chairman of the ICCS board, stated in his opening speech that dialogue between civilizations has become a global issue. Tolerance has always been intrinsic with Georgians. Hence, our country has always been open to dialogue between civilizations.

 

The peace forum considered the problems triggered in modern society by the decline of spiritual and ethical values and worked out an appeal to the international community which included the following points:

 

• make a clear distinction between eternal and pseudo values;

 

• pay more attention to the questions of spiritual and moral upbringing of the future generation, so that a properly brought up individual could make the right choice on his/ her own;

• try to put to the service of spiritual and moral values scientific and technical advancements such as those used by the mass media, the Internet, etc.

 

Within the framework of the forum dedicated to the 30 years since the enthroning and 75^th birthday of his Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II, the exhibition hall of the Hotel Tbilisi Marriott hosted a photo display featuring the life and activities of His Holiness and the presentation of a photo album called “Sunny Night” devoted to the same theme.

 

The best articles featuring relevant questions of the dialogue between civilizations were published in English by “Nova Science Publishers” (the U.S.).

 

In connection with the jubilee, the centre prepared a collection of brochures in Georgian and English.