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An Italian priest has been thwarted after publicising his plans (whch zipped round the world, whether he liked it or not) to hold an online beauty pageant for nuns. And no, I haven't been nipping at the communion wine: it's true. Apparently Father Antonio Rungi hoped that the pageant would reverse...

This is turning into quite a series about vicars. We've had the vicar attacked by dive-bombing seagulls, a vicar disguised as a tramp ignored by his congregation, the priest banning pop songs at funerals, and an ex-Bond-girl-turned-vicar. This time it's a hapless vicar who asked for a toddler...

Revd Derek Rigby wore a wig and a woolly hat, grew stubble for 3 days, doused his charity-shop clothes in lager and sat down at his church surrounded by cans and needle-less empty syringes. He wanted to see how his congregation would react to his presence - he'd pulled the stunt a couple of times...

I'm five years late with this story, but who cares? It's great. It's also very topical because of the very recent announcement that the Church of England has launched a campaign (CALL WAITING...) to enourage more under-30s to come forward to be vicars. According to the website MI6 (all about...

The tribulation has already begun for one unfortunate vicar in Cornwall. The Daily Mail reports that Rev Canon Graham Minors has been forced to don a hard hat whenever he goes to his own church because of a pair of seagulls who have taken up residence there - and are raising a flegling. Trouble starts...

The division created by the ongoing shenanigans about whether gay Christians can be in relationships, be priests or be bishops is unfortunate, as we know, and passions run high on both sides. I don't have any answers, or indeed anything new to add to the debate, other than to say that only God knows...

I have hobnobbed. Yesterday evening I consumed 2 glasses of wine and 2 glasses of orange juice (and several crisps and quite a few peanuts) in the company of some exceptional people in York. Oh, the archbishops of C and Y were there, too, as was Howard Dobson (the only reason most of us went), several...

This week I schlepped all the way down to Derbyshire (go figure), to where the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds were having their annual conference. (I think it's held so far away so that vicars can put in whopping great petrol expense claims, and thereby fund impressive new collections of hassocks and...

A few years ago I was working at a design agency when a new account manager joined. He was late-twenties, quite posh, and had a little diamond stud in one ear. "He's like a trendy vicar, isn't he!" whispered a colleague. Goodness, I'd known all kinds of vicars, some more fashionable...

Hot on the heels of my last post (the face of the Virgin Mary on your breakfast toast) comes news of the face of a hanged man on the cover of a book he wrote, purportedly bound in his own skin. The book's up for auction in Doncaster (!) on 2 Dec, should you wish to bid for it yourself. Jesuit priest...