Vicar defiant in gays protest

The vicar of a London parish which has withheld thousands of pounds earmarked for central Church funds in protest at the appointment of a homosexual dean remained defiant today.

Holy Trinity Church in Barnet has announced it will withhold its entire £33,600 annual quota - a voluntary "tax" paid by parishioners to central d iocesan funds - because of the appointment of Canon Jeffrey John as Dean of St Albans.

And it will divert £5,500 of that money to the True Freedom Trust, a Christian charity offering therapy to encourage sexual " transformation".

The Rev Charles Dobbie today said: "The biblical position on homosexual practice is consistent and clear, and it is against the Creation ordnance of God. This appointment is provocative and distressing for many Anglicans."