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The country has a total area of approximately 67,000 square kilometres (25,900 sq mi), and a population (as of 2014) of 3.7 million people.. In addition, there are a small number of mostly ethnic Russian believers from two dissenter Christian movements: the ultra-Orthodox Old Believers, and the Spiritual Christians (the Molokans and the Doukhobors).
Freedom of religions in Georgia is provided for by the country's constitution, laws, and policies.In practice, the Georgian government generally respects religious freedom; however, the Georgian Orthodox Church enjoys a privileged status in terms of legal and tax matters, involvement in public schools, and property disputes.
A page from a rare Georgian bible, dating from AD 1030, depicting the Raising of Lazarus. According to Orthodox tradition, Christianity was first preached in Georgia by the Apostles Simon and Andrew in the 1st century. It became the state religion of Kartli (Iberia) in 319.
Eastern Orthodox Christianity was the state religion throughout most of Georgia's history until 1921, when the country, having declared independence from Russia in 1918, was conquered by the Red Army during the Soviet invasion of Georgia, becoming part of the Soviet Union. [4]
A statue of Siddartha Gautama preaching. Since the arrival of Christian missionaries in India in the 1st century (traces of Christians in Kerala from 1st-century Saint Thomas Christians), followed by the arrival of Buddhism in Western Europe in the 4th and 5th centuries, similarities have been perceived between the practices of Buddhism and Christianity.
Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously non-Christian person to some form of Christianity. Some Christian sects require full conversion for new members regardless of any history in other Christian sects, or from certain other sects. The exact requirements vary between different churches and denominations.
Koine Greek and Church Slavonic are the main sacred languages used in communion. Other languages are also permitted for liturgical worship, and each country often has the liturgical services in their own language. This has led to a wide variety of languages used for liturgical worship, but there is still uniformity in the liturgical worship itself.
Most scholars believe there is no historical evidence of any influence by Buddhism on Christianity. [verification needed] Leslie Houlden states that although modern parallels between the teachings of Jesus and Buddha have been drawn, these comparisons emerged after missionary contacts in the 19th century and there is no historically reliable evidence of contacts between Buddhism and Jesus. [28]