Cleaner removes 'face of Jesus' from church

An "image of Jesus" seen in dripped wax by worshippers at a church in Wiltshire has been removed by a cleaner. The face was first spotted by a church warden at the parish church of Ogbourne St George at Easter. The image, described as a a man with a long beard, was formed by candle wax dripping from the church's pulpit.

Created over a four-month period, the wax image was apparently removed by a diligent cleaner last week, although nobody has owned up. Nicky Irwin was the church warden who first spotted it. "I was sitting in church just before Easter a little bit bored by a sermon when I saw it," she said. "I thought, 'Oh my goodness that looks so much like a face' and I thought 'that could be Jesus'."



The image could only be seen from a certain angle. "You had to be in the right seat," said Mrs Irwin. "From the side it just looked like dripped wax. It was only when you looked at it face-on that you could see it." Although many within the small congregation saw a face some were unwilling to "sign up to more then that", she said.

Despite going through the church's cleaning rotas, no-one has admitted to scraping away the wax image. "I felt really disappointed actually and I wished I'd done more about preserving it," admitted Mrs Irwin. "The Church of England is not very good at this sort of thing and if I'd done something sooner it could have been a bit of a money spinner."