Priest scoops the "best -loved" prize (From Gazette Series)

Priest scoops the "best -loved" prize

A PRIEST who hails from Dursley has won a unique accolade.

The Rev Richard Morgan, 55, now rector of Therfield and Kelshall, in Hertfordshire, has scooped the title of Best Loved Cleric.

Country Life magazine launched the ecclesiastical contest in July, inviting nominations from churchgoers in rural parishes. A shortlist of five was eventually selected.

Mr Morgan, a former pupil of the old Dursley Grammar School, who was a choirboy and Reader (CORR) at St James the Great, Dursley, and whose mother Janet still lives in May Lane, was up against some stiff competition.

There was the Rev Timothy Alban-Jones, vicar of Soham and Wicken, who received an MBE for his spiritual leadership after the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman; the Rev Christine Musser, vicar of Boscastle-with-Davidstow in north Cornwall, who was already starring in the BBC documentary series A Seaside Parish when the village was hit by floods; the Rev Jonas Mdumulla, vicar of Drax and Carlton, near Selby, Yorkshire, who came to Britain in 1982 as a "missionary priest", and the Rev Andrew Rowe, vicar of Posbury, who was a padre in the Royal Marines before retiring to the remote Devon parish where he favours the Book of Common Prayer.

But it was Richard Morgan who received more nominations than any other cleric.

One parishioner wrote to Country Life with a list of Mr Morgan's virtues, including his amateur acting skills, his great singing voice and his humour. Another begged: "Please, please let him win this competition."

Mr Morgan, who has been rector of his Hertfordshire parish for nearly ten years said he was grateful for the award.

"We try to build a community and share the love of God as best we can. Thinking about one another is part of building up a community."

His mother Janet told the Gazette: "He does his best. He has always done his best. I am obviously pleased for him."

Jessica Fellowes, deputy editor of Country Life, said the aim of the competition was to recognise the often unsung role of the priest in rural communities that were being stripped of pubs, post offices and police stations.