Church of England bans swinging, drinking vicar from practising

A female vicar who told colleagues that she went on swinging holidays in the South of France and who turned up drunk to church services has been banned from practising for 12 years by the Church of England.

The Rev Teresa Davies, from Daventry, Northamptonshire, was found guilty of inappropriate conduct at a tribunal in London yesterday.

Mrs Davies was said to have told two church colleagues at a Christmas lunch in 2006 that she and her husband had spent holidays without their children in the South of France, in an area that she said was noted for “the casual exchange of sexual partners”. The tribunal also heard that Mrs Davies, 37, and her husband had posted under the name “Tess and Mick, Daventry” on swinging websites.


Photo from here.

After the lunch Mrs Davies sent an e-mail to one of her colleagues, the Rev Canon Owen Page, saying that she had “probably loaded you with too much information”. She told the other clergyman, the Rev Peter Davis, who gave her a lift home after the lunch: “I think I have said too much.”

Later she told her archdeacon that she had been drinking and was trying to be shocking. She also said that she had never had any sexual relationship outside her marriage. She admitted to the tribunal that this was incorrect.

The tribunal said: “Clergy who commit sexual misconduct have to be dealt with firmly and in a way which would protect those who could be harmed if the respondent were otherwise allowed to remain in ministry.”