Return To Lay Status
Early in 2010, Osborne petitioned the Patriarchate of Constantinople for a return to lay status "to enable him to have a family home with the possibility of marrying again". This petiton was granted, although the precise terms of the decree of the Holy Synod bringing about the return to lay status have not been published. According to a report of the Moscow Patriarchate, Osborne was also defrocked.
Osborne's approach to the Ecumenical Patriarch was effected, at his request, by his ruling archbishop, Gabriel of Comana. On 20 February 2010 Archbishop Gabriel informed members of his archdiocese that the decision to "return Bishop Basil to lay status" had been made the previous week. The archbishop's letter to members of the deanery gives all the information from any Ecumenical Patriarchate source which is in the public domain about the matter.
Read more about this topic: Basil Osborne
Famous quotes containing the words return to, return, lay and/or status:
“The house waited on your private beach
each day,
when you had the time to return to her.
And you so often had the time,
even when fury blew out her chimney,
even when love lifted the shingles....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“But while they prate of economic laws, men and women are starving. We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“screenwriter
Policemen so cherish their status as keepers of the peace and protectors of the public that they have occasionally been known to beat to death those citizens or groups who question that status.”
—David Mamet (b. 1947)