Thought for the Day: turning the other cheek

[SON OF GRIDKNOCKER]

Folk I encounter on my peregrinations across High Town, often stop me and ask: "Vicar - how did you come to be de-frocked?"

 

I usually explain to them that I am bound by the terms of a Gagging Order, signed by the then-Bishop of Hereford, The Right Rev Greville Chasuble. Save to say that it was a very minor misdemeanour, of no great significance, involving a) an abseiling session down the cathedral tower to raise funds for a hedgehog sanctuary at Tillington; and b) my absentmindedness in forgetting to put on any underpants that morning.

 

It was the graphic telephoto images, broadcast that evening on Midlands Today, which sealed my fate - and caused irreperable damage to the BBC's Birmingham switchboard, which was out of action for a fortnight. But all that (as the former Mrs Membridge-Tinninges is wont to remind me, in her Christmas card from Antibes each year) is in the past.

 

As Christ himself put it (in his sermon on the steps of Aldi's Tel Aviv branch, I think it was): we should always turn the other cheek - after first checking that there are no cameramen from BBC Midlands Today, lurking in the crowd.

 

E.Membridge-Tinninges (Rev - de-frocked)

[Ubique]

Very worthy cause Vicar ( de - flocked ) - just proves that you should have eyes in the back of your head or lower down !