The exchanges were reviewed by a specially convened church disciplinary panel after complaints lodged by the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and Mr Vincent’s archdeacon.

The panel heard that the pair met at local pubs and “committed adultery” during two liaisons in Newcastle in June and July 2012. The first of the two sexual encounters was in a place described as “an alleyway”, although Mr Vincent said it was a “courtyard”.

On the second occasion, the woman texted him: “I’m home now come and get me.” He replied that he would have to leave immediately afterwards.

This weekend Mrs Vincent, who works in administration and met her husband 10 years ago, said she had read the messages but believed he deserved a second chance.

“Our relationship was unstable at the time,” she said. “I can see how much he regrets it and I don’t think he needs punishing further. Steve is an amazing person who has made some silly decisions.

“We have three gorgeous children who mean the world to us, and we both stay strong for them.”

Mr Vincent began studying for the priesthood at Wescott House, an Anglican theological college at Cambridge University, in 2008 having previously worked on drugs rehabilitation projects and schemes to rehouse former prisoners.

In 2010, when a pastoral assistant at a church in Cambridge, a biography in the newsletter said his spare time was “devoted to his family”.

He joined St Giles as a curate in 2011 and he and his wife moved into a nearby semi-detached home in Newcastle belonging to the Church.

In the spring of 2012 he was asked to meet the woman with whom he later had an affair, having been told “she was interested in exploring a call to ministry within the Church”. The vicar at the time suggested she shadow Mr Vincent.

The woman, who was also in a relationship, texted him to introduce herself on April 25 2012, the first of an “innumerable” stream of messages between the pair.

“Within two days the texts had become flirtatious,” said a statement by the Lichfield Diocese’s disciplinary panel, whose chairman, Geoffrey Tattersall, is a QC and lay canon at Manchester Cathedral.

In a message on April 27, Mr Vincent suggested that the woman should “send the other half to the park with the kids ... get yourself a big glass of red, slip into the bath and enjoy yourself”. The pair met in a pub on May 25 and by June 18 the messages had become sexually explicit.

They returned to the same venue on June 19, after which Mr Vincent said that “in different circumstances he may have kissed” her and she sent him a photograph of herself in her underwear.

Three days after Mr Vincent’s ordination as a priest the pair again met at a bar. They went into a courtyard and engaged in what, according to the panel, the clergyman told them was consensual sexual intercourse.

They met again at a pub in Newcastle on July 27, at which point, the panel said, the woman “made it clear to him that she wanted sex”. She returned to her home before inviting Mr Vincent to join her and wore “only a silky dressing gown and knickers” to greet him.

The woman later made an allegation that she had been raped, which Mr Vincent strongly denies. The claim was investigated by police, who later dropped the case.

The panel said it “unreservedly accepted” the priest’s version that the encounter was consensual.

Mr Vincent, who is originally from Northern Ireland, has been banned from acting as a priest for eight years. The panel said it could not judge whether he may be able to return to “active ministry” after that.

He is now claiming unemployment benefits and told The Telegraph that he and his family have been given until the end of the year to leave their home. The affair, he said, was a “huge, stupid mistake”. “It has been devastating,” he said. “In one day I lost my home, my job, and in some ways I nearly lost my family as well.

“We have been on the brink of breaking up and it is the thing I regret most in my life.”

He added of his wife: “She is incredibly strong and has been remarkably gracious and I owe her everything.

“We are together but it is down to her and her fortitude really.”

David Wildman, 67, a member of the parochial church council, said many parishioners had been unaware of the reason why Mr Vincent was suddenly removed from his post.

“We liked the guy and we were really pleased to have him,” he said.

“When the Bishop of Stafford came to tell us that there was a problem we were taken by surprise and wondered what it was all about.

“We were shocked when we heard he had been suspended. We never knew any details. They were kept very close.”

A spokesman for the Lichfield Diocese said Mr Vincent had “betrayed his wife, his family and his church”, adding that it was continuing to offer support to his family.

However, Mrs Vincent was critical of the diocese for leaving her and her husband in limbo for a lengthy period due to a “forever vague” disciplinary process which made it “hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel”.

She added: “We are beginning to see some light now and are trying to move on together as a family.”