Cambridge News
November 27, 2008
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_home/DisplayArticle.asp?id=369595
A VICAR has been banned from his church after an alleged affair with a parishioner.
Andrew Gair, 46, who had been rector of St Mary the Virgin and All Saints Church, Debden, was banned from the church for seven years by an ecclesiastical tribunal after details of his relationship with the parishioner, known as Mrs X, were revealed.
Mr Gair, who is married with two children, was also in charge of All Saints Church in Wimbish and was an Armed Forces padre at Carver Barracks before moving to Suffolk with his wife and children in 2006.
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| Andrew Gair, a father of two, had an affair with a woman parishioner, a church tribunal was told. |
The special ecclesiastical tribunal found Mr Gair guilty of "conduct unbecoming or inappropriate to the office and work of a clerk in Holy Orders" following a hearing.
It heard that Mr Gair shared passionate trysts with Mrs X in the rectory at the 13th century Debden church after the woman's family joined the congregation eight years ago.
By 2004, Mr and Mrs X, who are now divorcing, were struggling with their marriage. The tribunal heard that Mrs X was at the time sharing long walks in the countryside with Mr Gair and went on a trip with him while his wife was away.
When Mrs X told her husband she wanted to split up in February 2005, Mr X turned to the priest for help. He wanted his wife to join him but she refused.
Mr X later became suspicious of the relationship between the pair and confronted them, but both denied anything was going on. However, Mrs X later admitted the affair to her parents.
In 2006, Mr Gair moved to Beccles in Suffolk.
He denied adultery but told the hearing: "What I have always been willing to admit is finding myself falling in love with Mrs X."
The tribunal said on a balance of probabilities there had been "intimacy of a sexual nature".
Contact: laura.morris@cambridge-news.co.uk
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