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→Recent history: expression
==Recent history==
[[Image:Anthony Bloom.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Metr. [[Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh]]]] In the initial decades of the existence of the diocese, the diocese was centred in London and Oxford, consisting mainly of upper middle-class ex-Anglican converts and families of the first emigration from Russia. During these years the political situation between the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union meant that the Moscow Patriarchate could exercise virtually no control over Sourozh diocese. Metr. Anthony encouraged the development of a distinctive style, liturgical practice and ethos within the diocese which reflected the fusion of Franco-Russian emigres and Oxford-London ex-Anglicans in the diocese. This included native-language liturgy, frequent communion, discression over confession before each communion, a relaxed attitude to tradition traditional Russian church dress (e.g. for women: skirts and headscarves), permission of marriage on Saturdays and an avoidance of celebrating the full hierarchical liturgy according to the standard [[typikon]] of the Russian Orthodox Church.
From the last years of the Soviet Union, large numbers of Russian Orthodox economic migrants arrived in the United Kingdom from Russian lands. Many were surprised by and uncomfortable with and unhappy at the idiosyncracies of ethos, style and liturgical practice which were standard in the diocese. A vocal minority of these Orthodox from Russia began to complain vociferously to the Diocese and, later, to the Moscow Patriarchate itself. In their own eyes, they sought the conformity of the ethos and liturgical practice of the diocese with the standard [[typikon]] of the Russian Orthodox Church; in the eyes of the Oxford-London ex-Anglicans, this amounted to the [[Russification]] of the diocese. During the lifetime of Metr. Anthony, tensions reached a high-point during the 2002 when Bishop [[Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Vienna|Hilarion (Alfeyev)]] was Bishop of Kerch.
