A CONTROVERSIAL ex-vicar from Barnoldswick has published a book, reflecting on his 40 years in the ministry.
Trevor Vaughan was labelled ‘disloyal’ by the church because of his traditionalist views on the subject of women priests and bishops.
Now the retired vicar has revealed his side of the story in a new book called ‘Nowt! A Ministry of Nothing?’.
Trevor was ordained in the new cathedral in Coventry in 1969 and during his ministry served as rector of Bolton-by-Bowland and Grindleton, vicar of Settle, and rector of Broughton, Marton and Thornton-in-Craven.
He said that over the past four decades, there had been enormous changes – and not all of them for the best.
The book looks at his childhood in Barnoldswick and how the church began to play an ever increasing part in his life.
He joined the Sunday school and church choir and later helped set up the Barnoldswick Young Christians Group.
But when he decided to enter the ministry, he said his father tried to talk him out of the ‘daft idea’.
He said: “Not a single relation ever voluntarily attended an act of worship at which I performed.
My relations’ absence leads me to the inevitable conclusion that for 40 years I have exercised a ministry of ‘nowt’ – in their eyes, a worthless waste of work.”
The book also details a second ostracism – by the church.
He said: “At the outset, my family thought my ministry to be nowt. And at the end, my church’s charge of disloyalty certainly seems to me as if the ministry I performed in all the intervening years was similarly worthless, foolish and nothing.”
However the book also contains light-hearted stories, including that of a crumbling country vicarage plagued by the ghost of a previous incumbent, colourful characters, a strange wedding and a farcical funeral!
Trevor’s wife and four children also feature, as does his love of football, sheep, cartoons and clowns.
The former vicar, who retired in 2006, will be giving promotional talks about the book at Grindleton School, at 7.30pm on Friday.
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