A RETIRED priest who was found in possession of the drugs crystal meth and ketamine has been permanently barred from ministry in the Church of England, despite his claim that they assisted him in his “pastoral mission”.

The Revd Geoffrey Baulcomb retired in 2003, and, over much of the past 20 years, has held permission to officiate in the dioceses of Chichester and St Edmundsbury & Ipswich.

During his retirement, he ministered at St Mary the Virgin, Eastbourne.

In 2022, Sussex Police found crystal meth, a class A drug, and ketamine, a class B drug, in his home in Eastbourne. Mr Baulcomb was given a police caution, and soon after, proceedings under the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM) were brought against him.

The case against him concluded with a judgment handed down on 23 August, which prohibited Mr Baulcomb from ordained ministry for life.

There is no evidence that Mr Baulcomb supplied drugs to anyone else, but he admitted to having purchased “a small amount of crystal meth” online, and to having “sampled” some of it on his own. He also admitted to having “periodically” purchased drugs over the previous 20 years, and to having once injected himself with heroin.

During the proceedings, Mr Baulcomb argued that “experimenting with drugs or by providing a venue at his home for drug-taking better enables him to relate and minister to people with difficulties as part of his pastoral care” of them, according to the judgment.

He “suggested that his activities are not misconduct because they assist him in carrying out his pastoral mission”; but the tribunal considered this justification to be “entirely misconceived” and to display “a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of his Holy Orders”.

The tribunal concluded that Mr Baulcomb was not “truly contrite”, though noted that he was of previous good character, and gave him credit for having pleaded guilty to the charges.

None the less, the tribunal decided that the appropriate penalty was prohibition for life — the most serious punishment that can be exacted on a priest who does not hold any office.

There was, the tribunal said, “no realistic prospect” of Mr Baulcomb, who is 78, being “rehabilitated” into ministry, “even without regard to his age. . . If one does have regard to his age, the Tribunal sees absolutely no prospect of the Respondent being fit for ministry in his remaining lifetime,” the judgment concluded.

A spokesperson from the diocese of Chichester said that the Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, had immediately withdrawn Mr Baulcomb’s permission to officiate when he was informed of the police action, and that Mr Baulcomb “was asked to stop attending his local church”.