A FORMER East Lancashire Church of England clergyman is training to be a Roman Catholic priest.

The Rev Henry Dickinson was curate at St Catherine's Church, Burnley, for seven years. He quit over his opposition to the ordination of women priests, an issue which has caused turmoil at St Catherine's.

The former teacher had his licence removed by the Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Rev Alan Chesters, after he told the bishop he was to join the Roman Catholic church.

Mr Dickinson is now a member of the St Mary's RC Church congregation in Burnley and is training for ordination in the Salford diocese. That could result in him becoming a Roman Catholic priest in 1997.

The former Blackburn councillor said: "I have no regrets.

"It has all been very open and I have lost no friends."

Mr Dickinson also assisted at St Margaret's Church, Hapton, and made many friends there.

He added: "I left the Church of England for genuine reasons. I found the ordination of women priests incompatible with my beliefs."

Mr Dickinson, a teacher for 35 years before entering the church ranks as a non-stipendiary clergyman, said his meeting with the Bishop of Blackburn was very polite. "I was leaving for genuine reasons," he added.

Mr Dickinson's exit from St Catherine's a "high" Anglican church, was followed in September by that of the vicar of 17 years, Father Roy Williams.

The vicar announced to his stunned congregation that he was to retire because he could not accept women priests.

Earlier this month Blackburn diocese officials confirmed that Father Williams had become a Roman Catholic.

Father Williams, also a one-time Blackburn councillor now living on the Fylde coast, declined to discuss his conversion nor whether he, too, would be seeking to be ordained a Roman Catholic priest.

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