ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the early twenty-first century crisis that arose in the Moscow Patriarchate Diocese of Sourozh in Great Britain and Ireland. A new page in the history of the Sourozh diocese was to be written after the fall of Communism in the former Soviet Union, which occasioned a considerable influx of new Russian-speaking members. The Russian Orthodox presence in the British Isles dates back to the eighteenth century, when the London parish of the Dormition of the Mother of God was created as an embassy church in 1716. The main conflict occurred between the Sourozh diocese administrator Bishop Basil Osbourne and his supporters versus Moscow-sent clergy at the service of the Russian-speaking immigrants, priest Andrey Teterin, Archbishop Anatoly of Kerch and Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev. Metropolitan Anthony's spiritual charisma and his energetic style of leadership were key to the progress of the diocese.
