A long-serving married rector has been banned from the clergy for life after running away with his female deputy, Yourmaidstone reports.
The Rev Canon James Tipp, 63, received the life-long ban after abandoning his wife and his Snodland parish in February 2008 to set up home with Elaine Northern, 54.
Northern was given a 12-year ban for her part in the scandal, which left the congregation at Christ Church stunned.
At a disciplinary hearing, Mr Tipp, who was also Rural Dean of Cobham, received the life ban because of his higher level of responsibility.
The father-of-two has hit out at the ban, citing the case of Rev Teresa Davies who was barred for just 12 years after holding church services while drunk and having sexual intercourse with strangers.
In a statement to a national newspaper, Mr Tipp and Mrs Northern wrote: “We should have fared much better had we been promiscuous.
“We have had a number of comments from those outside the church asking the question ‘I thought Christianity was about forgiveness?’
“Although Judge Wiggs (who chaired Mr Tipp’s tribunal) states ‘the Church must exercise forgiveness’, forgiveness does not seem to be on the agenda and in a lifetime sentence can never be on the agenda.”
The couple, who were both married when they began their relationship, disappeared last year, leaving Tipp’s eldest daughter, Michelle, 36, the tough task of explaining their absence to startled parishioners.
Father-of-two Tipp, 62, had been parish priest at the Snodland church for more than 25 years, while Northern, a 45-year-old mother-of-four joined in 2003.
Churchgoers and residents were shocked by the pair’s infidelity, with one man branding Tipp a hypocrite.
The man, who did not want to be named, fumed: “John was always preaching about the sanctity of marriage and the need to resist temptation and then he goes and runs away with the church curate.
“It’s also well known he didn’t like doing weddings for people who have been divorced and didn’t want to christen a man’s daughter because he was divorced.
“He’s a complete hypocrite.”
Canon Tipp, rector of the church since 1982, married wife Veronica in Hackney in 1967.
The couple have two daughters, Michelle, 36, and Elizabeth, 34.
Church curate Northern, who joined the parish in 2003, was also highly thought of by parishioners.
She and her husband met in the 1970s and married in Islington, North London, in 1977.
They have two girls and two boys ranging in age from 18 to 26.
POSTED: 07/01/2009 08:00:00
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