Two bishops from independent jurisdictions had died back in November. I personally find these two interesting because of their recent decisions.
The first is
Seraphim (William Henry Hugo Newman-Norton) [
en.wikipedia.org], Patriarch of the British Orthodox Church. His death was just
recently announced [
britishorthodox.org] by the website of the British Orthodox Church. He caused quite a stir back in 2015 when he chose to separate his British Orthodox Church from the Coptic Orthodox Church after almost 2 decades of being under their jurisdiction since 1994. Most of his parishes chose to remain with the Copts. Nonetheless, he would reclaim his Patriarchal title in 2019 and then consecrated his own bishops. Based on the activities of his church's website, it has been downhill since his separation. His official reason for separation has been the source of speculation. It did not help that his former priests nor the Copts refused to elaborate either. I personally tried Googling reasons way back then and I remember a claim that he suffered from Alzheimer's and that some people around him manipulated him. His Alzheimer's has now been confirmed at least.
The second is
Silvano (Francesco Livi) [
ru.wikipedia.org]. He started out as a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pistoia. He would join the Russian Orthodox Church and then transfer to the Serbian Orthodox Church. Eventually, he would join the Greek Old Calendarists and become the bishop and exarch of Italy for the largest faction. In 2020, he would unilaterally declare autocephaly and also consecrate his own bishops. In 2023, he asked for repentance from the Roman Catholic bishop of Pistoia who reaccepted him. When he died, the Diocese of Pistoia even
posted [
diocesipistoia.it] posted about him. I also tried Googling about him and found some claims that he also suffered from dementia during the last years of his life. Regardless, it's funny to think that the Byzantine Catholic Italo-Greeks had a
bishop emeritus for them.
