'SEX MAD' CHRISTIAN VICAR WHO PRAYED AFTER MAKING LOVE WITH FEMALE CHURCHGOER IS SUSPENDED
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By Daily Mail Reporter
The Daily Mail
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Reverend Stephen Smith
Reverend Stephen Smith said the incident had left him very upset. He
said: 'It's very distressing and really it has been quite bleak'
A 'sex mad' vicar has been suspended from duty for six months over
claims of 'inappropriate behaviour' with a female member of his
congregation, it has emerged.
A former girlfriend, Kerry Lansfield, is said to reported Reverend
Stephen Smith to Church of England authorities.
Ms Lansfield said she suffered a nervous breakdown following his
marriage to her love rival last summer.
Parishioners at St Mary's Church, in Cardington, Bedfordshire, were
told the news during a Sunday service.
In a statement read to churchgoers by acting Reverend Peter
Littleford, church goers were told a complaint had been made against
Rev Smith in August 2009.
It related to claims of an 'inappropriate relationship with a female
member of the congregation', resulting in his suspension from church
duties for six months.
Ms Lansfield said: 'We had a two-year relationship but I suspected he
had a secret girlfriend when I heard him blowing kisses down the
phone.
'I thought we'd get married. He was sex mad and often took me back to
his vicarage for a �bit of the other".
'It was an intense sexual relationship but he felt guilty after we
had been to bed.
'He would start praying and say �Praise the Lord" for the tender
moments we had shared together.
'I was new to the church and felt a bit uncomfortable about it. But I
trusted him and he totally betrayed me.'
She added: 'When I feared he had a secret girlfriend, I challenged
him about it and he eventually admitted there was another woman in
his life.
'I ended the relationship but was in a terrible state. He'd blank me
in church and the congregation turned their backs on me. Rev Stephen
Smith with his wife Sue on their wedding day Kerry Lansfield
Stephen Smith with his wife Sue on their wedding day and lover Kerry
Lansfield
'Then I learned he was getting married. I had a breakdown and, at my
mother's insistence, I reported him,' she told the Daily Express.
A church source said yesterday that neither the vicar nor the woman
had been married at the time the claims of 'inappropriate behaviour'
occurred.
Speaking outside his vicarage home in Bedford yesterday Rev Smith
said the whole incident had left him very upset.
He said: 'It's very distressing and really it has been quite bleak.
I'm just trying to get on with things now and I'm leaving it for the
diocese to deal with it.'
The revelations followed a February newsletter sent to all members of
the congregation which claimed Mr Smith was taking time off because
he was ill.
It read: 'Sadly the first edition of 2010 comes to you without a
leading article from our team vicar, the Reverend Stephen Smith. St
Mary's Church in Cardington, Bedfordshire
Shocked flock: St Mary's Church in Cardington, Bedfordshire
'At the time of printing Stephen is still unwell and under doctors
orders to remain at home.
'We send him our love and very best wishes for better health in the
coming year.'
Margaret Nicholson, 57, who works in retail and lives in the village,
said everyone had been stunned by Mr Smith's suspension.
She said: 'We are very shocked and nobody really knows what is going
on.
'He is a fun-loving jokey man but has never been untoward to any of
us. He is a real gentleman.
'He has never done anything to make me feel uneasy and it seems to me
he is the victim of a woman scorned.'
A Church of England spokesman for the Diocese of St Albans confirmed
Mr Smith's ban came into force on Sunday, January 31.
He said: 'The Bishop of Hertford, the Mr Christopher Foster, has
heard the complaint under the legislation governing the Clergy
Discipline Measure 2003.
'He determined the Mr Stephen Smith should be prohibited from
exercising any functions as a member of the clergy for six months.
This is a significant penalty.
'A complaint was made against the Reverend Stephen Smith, Team Vicar
in the Elstow Team Ministry, Bedfordshire, that his conduct towards
an adult female member of his parish was inappropriate to the office
and work of a Clerk in Holy Orders.
'The public and the Church rightly expect the highest standards of
behaviour from clergy and take seriously any falling short from these
standards.'
The spokesman also confirmed police were not involved in the case and
said it was likely Rev Smith would return to the church when his
suspension expired.
St Mary's has a chancel dating back from the early 13th century but
the remainder of the church was built in 1901 thanks to the
generosity of the local Whitbread brewing family.
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
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kirastanis pray twice in 24 housrs: at the dinner table for "daily bread
about to receive", and at bedtime (for nightly sex about to receive?)
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