The English MP diocese joins EP

[Reader Nicholas]

Check this out!

http://www.dioceseinfo.org/

[jacqueline]

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=1418

---BEGIN ARTICLE---

Interfax | 15 May 2006, 15:04
Administrator of Moscow Patriarchate diocese in Britain dismissed

Moscow, May 15, Interfax - Bishop Basil (Osborne) of Sergiyevo, the administrator of the Sourozh diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church in Britain, has been dismissed.

Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Alexy II has sent an ordinance to Bishop Basil. The ordinance "removes him from the office of the Sourozh diocese administrator without the right to move the diocese into another jurisdiction," the Moscow Patriarchate's Church External Relations Department said on Monday.

It was reported earlier that Bishop Basil had asked to move the diocese into the Constantinople Patriarch jurisdiction without the permission of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The bishop rejected Patriarch Alexy's offer to withdraw his request, and the patriarch decided to dismiss him.

Archbishop Innokenty of Korsun has been temporarily put in charge of the Sourozh diocese.

---END ARTICLE---

[Myrrh]

found this.

http://portal-credo.ru/site/?act=news&id=43112&cf

Portal-Credo.ru and Sedmitza.ru report that a commission has been appointed to investigate the situation in the Sourozh Diocese. The commission members are:

Archbishop Innokenty of Korsun, ROCOR's Archbishop Mark of Berlin, by agreement with ROCOR's first hierarch, Metropolitan Laurus, Fr. Nikolai Balashov of the MP Dept. of External Church Relations, with the participation of Priest Mikhail Dudko.

[尼古拉前执事]

ROCOR bishops on MP commisions already? Wow, that was quick!

[Jean-Serge]

Yes, but Bishop Mark is Bishop for Germany and Great Britain... So he may be concerned by the current events.

[StephenG]

But what is the effect of such membership of a MP inquiry team on the situation with a MP diocese when you include a ROCOR hierarch for both the MP clergy and people and the ROCOR clergy and faithful?

It appears to me remarkable insensitive, strongly suggests the MP-ROCOR rapprochemont is a done deal - despite all the protestations in ROCOR to the contrary.

And Archbishop Mark used to have grave reservations and preserved a distance from the MP. What has changed and what did ROCOR actually stand apart for for all those years. Sorrowful epistles and the like appear now to be simply forgotten while Moscow appears very much to face two ways, and still appears too closely tied to the state in a manner little different from Soviet times?

[Myrrh]

It appears to me remarkable insensitive, strongly suggests the MP-ROCOR rapprochemont is a done deal - despite all the protestations in ROCOR to the contrary.

That does sum it up.

And Archbishop Mark used to have grave reservations and preserved a distance from the MP. What has changed and what did ROCOR actually stand apart for for all those years.

I recall reading something a few years ago that Bishop Mark changed his mind after a meeting with the MP and there was a great deal of shock that he could have changed so dramatically.

Myrrh