| ‘Irony’ of Good Friday gambling
CHURCHES have criticised the change in gambling laws which allowed bookmakers to open on Good Friday for the first time this year. A Church of England spokesman called for betting companies to donate a percentage of their profits to charities helping those with gambling addictions. A Methodist spokesman, the Revd Ken Howcroft, spoke of the irony of gambling on the day that the Roman soldiers cast lots for Christ’s clothes.
Sex-offender priest escapes prison
THE Revd Paul Battersby, former Vicar of St Ambrose’s, in Leyland, Lancashire, received a suspended prison sentence and was placed on the sex- offenders register after pleading guilty to three counts of downloading indecent images of children. The priest, who has been suspended from his duties, will also have to complete 200 hours of unpaid work. The Church of England will now start its own disciplinary procedure.
East End attack: man arrested
A MAN has been charged in relation to the attack on Canon Michael Ainsworth at St George’s-in-the-East, Shadwell, London, earlier this month (News, 20 March). Babul Islam, 19, of Barnardo Street, Whitechapel, has been charged with religiously aggravated actual bodily harm, and will appear before Thames Magistrates’ Court.
Cleric agrees to resign
THE Revd Jeremy Clark, Priest-in-Charge of St Philip and St James, Ilfracombe, with West Down, has agreed to resign, after a number of complaints were made against him under the Clergy Discipline Measure. The exact nature of the offences has not been revealed, but the Bishop of Exeter, the Rt Revd Michael Langrish, said he upheld seven of the complaints concerned with “behaviour unbecoming to a clerk in holy orders”.
Deaf appointment
THE Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Revd Nicholas Reade, has been appointed chairman of the C of E’s committee for ministry among deaf and disabled people, succeeding the Bishop of Sheffield, the Rt Rev Jack Nicholls.
From Wangaratta to Sussex
THE BISHOP of Wangaratta for ten years, the Rt Revd David Farrer, is to be the new Vicar of Arundel in West Sussex. He was born in Surrey.
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