Basil Osborne

Alfred Herbert Ernest Osborne, formerly known as Basil Osborne (born 12 April 1938), is a former Orthodox Christian bishop. Osborne was formerly an auxiliary bishop of the Patriarchate of Moscow from 1991 to 2006 and a titular bishop under the Ecumenical Patriarchate from 2006 to 2010. He was returned to lay status, at his own request, in February 2010 after indicating to the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople that he wished to resume a family life and be free to remarry (having formerly been married and widowed prior to his consecration as a bishop).

Osborne held the position of Bishop of Sergievo as a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church and the position of Bishop of Amphipolis within the Ecumenical Patriarchate, in which he served as an assistant bishop in its Patriarchal Exarchate for Orthodox Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe, charged with the care of its people in Great Britain and Ireland.

Osborne was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1938, but grew up in the United States. He was introduced to Orthodoxy in 1957 by Father Michael Gelsinger, Professor of Classics at the University at Buffalo, New York.

Osborne married his wife, Rachel, in 1962, after a time of service in the US Army. He received his doctorate (in classics) from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1969.

Osborne was ordained to the diaconate by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh (Moscow Patriarchate) in 1969 and priest in 1973, serving the Russian Orthodox Parish of the Annunciation in Oxford. Following his wife's death in 1991 he was consecrated in 1993 as Bishop of Sergievo in the Moscow Patriarchate, to assist Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh. Following Metropolitan Anthony's death in 2003, he was appointed temporary administrator of the Diocese of Sourozh, which position he held until 2006.

In 2006 Osborne left the Patriarchate of Moscow and sought reception into the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople - a process which caused much controversy and ecclesiastical friction (see details under Russian Orthodox Diocese of Sourozh). After a lengthy dispute between the two patriarchates over the situation and the canonical questions raised by a bishop who seeks entry into a new jurisdiction without release from his current patriarchate, the situation was eventually resolved and Osborne was received into the Ecumenical Patriarchate as a titular bishop with the title of Bishop of Amphipolis. As with all other titular bishops in the Ecumenical Patriarchate who do not have sees, he was technically known as one of the "bishops of the throne" (i.e. a bishop who serves the patriarchate in a titular manner, rather than being head of a diocese).

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