LONDON -- The Church of England has banned a married priest from the priesthood for life after he left his wife and set up a home with his female deputy, who is also an ordained priest.
A disciplinary tribunal for the Diocese of Rochester ruled that the Rev. Canon James Tipp's relationship with the Rev. Elaine Northern was "inappropriate" and the cause of "a major public scandal."
Tipp was rector of Snodland with Lower Birling, in southeast England. Northern, who was ordained as a priest six years ago, joined him as associate rector in 2007.
The tribunal's chairman, Samuel Wiggs, said in a written statement that though the church should exercise forgiveness, "this does not involve pretending that something has not happened."
Tipp was ordered barred from any ecclesiastical post forever, and Northern was banned for 12 years.
The couple, who had left their spouses and moved in together in February 2008, had "both been responsible for causing a major public scandal," Wiggs said.
In addition, he said, Tipp had acted in a manner "unbecoming to the office."
In a joint letter to Rochester Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, Tipp and Northern confessed that they had fallen in love during their working relationship and that "our faith is under real stress as we struggle with ourselves and with God in all of this." The couple added that "our feelings have created huge moral, emotional and theological questions within us" and that "we hope that, in time, that pain will ease and all will be able to get on with their lives."
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