Suspended for 2 years, pastor who confessed to an affair
AS AN experienced Church of England pastor, the Reverend Mark Bailey has spent years lecturing his flock about conducting themselves honourably.
But he has now been suspended for ‘dishonouring God’ after he admitted having an affair behind his wife’s back.
The disgraced father-of-three – who describes himself as a ‘family man’ in an online post – has been banned from conducting services at Trinity Church in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, for two years.
His wife Karen, however, appears more forgiving. A photo uploaded on the picture sharing service Instagram earlier this week shows the couple and other relatives looking happy and tanned on a holiday in Lagos, southern Portugal.
Mr Bailey, 56, has his arm around his 54-year- old wife’s shoulders as they pose for the group shot on a beach.
In another photograph, the couple have their arms around each other during a holiday in Cornwall.
Mr Bailey’s indiscretion is believed to have come to light in January after he had a crisis of conscience and confessed his sins to church superiors.
The Bishop of Gloucester, the Right Reverend Rachel Treweek, began investigating the ‘ extramarital affair’, which had recently ended, following a meeting requested by the pastor. She asked him to ‘step back from his ministry’ while the matter was considered under the Clergy Discipline Measure, which looks into formal complaints of misconduct in matters outside doctrine, ritual or ceremonial.
Bishop Treweek announced the two-year ban this week, saying: ‘Clergy in the Church of England are expected to aspire to the highest possible standards of conduct within their ministry and such behaviour is dishonouring to God and the Church.
‘In imposing this penalty I have sought to acknowledge God’s grace whilst also taking into account the importance of living with consequences and the need for deep inner reflection with a commitment to address the underlying issues of personal behaviour.’
Mr Bailey became involved in ministry 27 years ago and for 20 years has been pastor at Trinity Church, an evangenlical, charismatic church with around 1,500 members. The family live in a £400,000 six-bedroom Victorian semi- detached house in an upmarket, tree-lined road in Cheltenham.
Mr Bailey says in his Twitter biography that he is ‘grateful for grace, pursuing transformation, rebuilding life, married to Kari, family man’.
He grew up in a Christian home and his father was a minister. But he has described how his only interest was rugby before he was seriously injured and began reading the Bible while recovering in bed.
‘I came across this character called Jesus who basically bore no resemblance to anything I’d come across in church before,’ he said in a video for New Wine, a UK-wide Christian fellowship. ‘I realised that he loved me and I was in love with him.’
Mr Bailey was team rector and lead pastor at Holy Trinity and St Paul, Cheltenham, and was also national director of New Wine, a network of evangelical and charismatic parishes which he had headed since 2014. He caused shock when he stepped down from New Wine in January.
After this decision, Mr Bailey posted on Twitter that he was ‘taking a break’ and that it was ‘time to put on my own oxygen mask’.
He also shared a quote on Instagram, which reads: ‘Mistakes are proof that you are trying.’
Dishonouring to God’