As a result of the War in Abkhazia (1992–1993) and expulsion of ethnic Georgian clergy from Abkhazia, the church was left to the guidance of ethnically Abkhaz priest of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Vissarion Apliaa, who made some renovation on the church building with the help of the Russian church authorities in 2011. Apliaa declared severance of ties with the Georgian church and began to style himself as the leader of independent Abkhazian Orthodox Church, although the former remains canonically unrecognized within the Orthodox world and the Abkhaz Orthodox clerical community itself straddles division. In 2011, the de facto Abkhaz government transferred 38 churches, cathedrals and monasteries perpetually into the care of the Abkhazian Orthodox Church. From the point of the Georgian government, the church is part of cultural heritage located in the Occupied Territories of Georgia.