On Monday, the Revd Alex Brown, the former Vicar of St Peter and St Paul, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, was sentenced to four years in prison, after being found guilty of conspiring to facilitate breaches of immigration law after officiating at 360 weddings in four years (News, 6 August). He received an additional five months for failing to publish banns of marriage.
A statement from Chichester diocese said: “So many people have been let down by Alex Brown’s conduct, and all those affected by the events in St Leonards are at the forefront of our sympathy and prayers.” It also said that it recognised “that people’s confidence in the Church of England to live up to its own standards has been undermined by these events”, and that it was “in the process of reviewing all relevant procedures”.