A Thinking Man

I suppose it makes a change from a sex scandal, though you could argue that, in the scale of things, it could actually be worse.

According to The Times:

A 60-year-old vicar was charged yesterday with involvement in an alleged criminal conspiracy to organise “sham marriages” for illegal immigrants.

The Rev Alex Brown was one of four people arrested after a series of dawn raids in the Hastings area of East Sussex on Tuesday, which came after an 18-month investigation by Sussex Police and the UK Border Agency’s immigration crime team.

Police searched the offices of St Peter and St Paul Church, St Leonards, and arrested Mr Brown, who has worked in the parish for almost 20 years. He was charged with conspiring to facilitate unlawful entry and solemnising a marriage according to the rites of the Church of England without banns of matrimony being duly published.

Those who liked the vicar would doubtless understand his misdemeanor and point out that clergy are not highly paid and that he was probably building up his retirement fund by performing these public duties.

They might also argue that people are responsible for their own actions and it is not the job of the vicar to moralize over who should get married and who shouldn’t - heaven knows there has been enough public fuss over that recently for the church daring to suggest that some couples shouldn’t get married because they happened to have the same, rather than different, biological plumbing.

Doubtless the Rev Alex Brown used such arguments when trying to square the circle in his own mind and conscience - assuming he had both.

I find at least three things reprehensible about this story.  First, a supposed representative of truth and honesty has become involved in criminal activity, turning a blind eye for his own gain, regardless of the consequences.  I suppose in the light of church history, a little illicit marrying seems comparatively minor, but he should have known better, and should have stayed clear of the crime.

Secondly, it is so hypocritical for a leader in an organization that puts so much store on the value of marriage and the alleged importance of the life-long permanence of a union of one man and one woman before god, to be trivializing the ceremony (or as they would say, the ’sacrament’).  The result is not a life-long union before god, but a piece of paper to be used in deceit and the relationship will almost certainly cease to exist after the ceremony and be legally annulled at some future date.  My issue is not that marriage should necessarily be any of the things the church teaches, but rather that because they teach it, it is so bizarre for one of them to be acting in such a way.

The third issue for me is (strangely) about management and accountability (it reflects my background).  It just highlights how weak and ineffective the management structure is in the church that such a person could get away with it until the police spilled the beans.

Tags: banns, Church of England, clergy, East Sussex, Hastings, management, matrimony, Rev Alex Brown, sacrament, sham marriages, St Leonards, St Peter and St Paul Church, vicar