Last updated 11:24, Thursday, 20 November 2008

WELL, it's one way of filling up empty pews on Sunday mornings.

Straightlaced Geoffrey Horton couldn't wait to get on the blower and complain to the bishop when they appointed Dawn French Vicar of Dibley.

Heaven only knows what he would have made of that rather well-built vicar from Northamptonshire who has gone and got herself barred from the clergy for 12 years.

The C of E disciplinary panel heard that the biker vicar had not only turned up drunk for services, but boasted that she and her husband enjoyed swinging holidays – and I don't think she meant going round the country listening to Jools Holland concerts.

The good news for conservative churchgoers is she's banished. The bad news for parents is that she's training to become a teacher.

Now that the Government is planning sex education lessons for the under sevens, it sounds like one former vicar is about to get busy.