A CHURCH near Banbury has been blasted as ‘bonkers’ by outraged parishioners, after it voted to exclude woman from the application process to become its next priest.

The benefice of King’s Sutton with Newbottle and Charlton, which lies on the Oxfordshire-Northamptonshire border, is accused of being ‘out of touch’ over the decision, which was taken despite the Parochial Church Council (PCC) being evenly split on the issue.

One PCC member, Stephen Allday, has now resigned after 25 years’ service because of the decision, and will now go to Newbottle Church instead of King’s Sutton.

The retired 77-year-old, who has lived and worshipped in King’s Sutton since 1970, said: “I resigned because I thought the PCC was out of touch with the wider community. It was a big decision for me but I felt strongly.

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“I think times have moved on. The church is now looked upon as exclusive and out of touch with the parish.”

He continued: “I think every church in the Church of England is supposed to be for the people in the parish and that is its first priority - not people who live outside.

“Its ironic that King’s Sutton residents are now worshipping elsewhere so that people outside the parish can be accommodated. That shouldn’t be the case.”

“I just hope the PCC will see that it has made a mistake.”

Members of the PCC say one member abstained and six voted each way after a debate on the matter. Church Warden Dee Thobourne then cast the deciding vote to exclude women.

When asked to comment by the Mail, she hung up and did not reply to messages.

Employers in the UK must comply with equal opportunities employment laws, which make discrimination due to gender, sexual orientation or ethnicity unlawful, but the church is exempt.

The vicar will serve around 3,500 people for an initial period of three years, following the death of Father Roger Bellamy.

Archdeacon of Northampton Richard Ormston defended the Anglo-Catholic PCC’s right to make the decision.

He said: “They are allowed to (exclude women) as long as its on a theological, democratic basis.

"The church had a healthy debate and it appears to be a majority view.

“I hear there were voices that spoke out against it.”

He said he ‘understood’ why people would think the decision outdated but added that churches are ‘leading the way’ on other progressive issues.

Another PCC member, Roger Neill, said the parish was now ‘one of only a tiny minority of C of E parishes to take this gender-based stand’, adding that he believed three quarters of the congregation were open to women and that villagers had told him it was a ‘cobwebby medieval idea’ to exclude women.

He also claimed that many ‘anti-women lobbyists’ did not live in the village.

Deborah Hayter, a parishioner and part-time tutor at Oxford University, labelled it a 'curious situation' because parishioners at the benefice’s other church, in Newbottle, had been ‘ignored’.

The 70-year-old said: “Its bonkers and we felt cross about the way that decision was reached.

“I feel quite miffed about it because not only does it reduce the probable pool of candidates by half, it also means some people will not want to come to this parish.”

In September last year, a Parish in Jericho, Oxford, also voted to exclude women from becoming its new priest.