This article is more than 25 years oldBig trouble in little Ropley
This article is more than 25 years oldThe peace of a pretty Hampshire village has been shattered by a rift between the vicar and his parishioners. They want him out, saying his manner is unacceptable. He feels he's being persecuted by a bunch of 'would-be lords of the manor'. Marina Cantacuzino reportsThe pretty village of Ropley in Hampshire is about as peaceful a place as you could find, but discord often takes root in the calmest of settings. Here, on a crisp morning in December, as the 71-strong congregation gathers in the village hall to celebrate the first Sunday in Advent, a fleeting prayer of reconciliation is the only hint of the bitter dispute that has riven the parish. For these are the people who, two years ago, publicly shunned their vicar and began holding rival monthly services in a building normally reserved for village fetes.
The scene in the Norman church of St Peter's, just 200 yards down the road, is very different. Preaching to a congregation of no more than five is the Rev Royston Such, the man who may have lost his flock but who is determined not to lose his parish. The 53-year-old vicar of Bishop Sutton, Ropley and West Tisted seems undaunted by the poor turn-out and his voice does not falter as he delivers a sermon touching on the exemplary life of his grandfather, a man with an open mind and a willingness to listen.
Reverend Such cuts an imposing figure. Bearded, broad and forbidding, he emerges from the church in the bright sunlight to stand underneath the porch where, in happier times, a crowd of well-wishing parishioners would have followed to shake his hand. But today the only person close on his heels is his wife, the Rev Tana Riviere, whom he married three years ago.
So unpopular are this pair, and seemingly so reluctant to do anything separately, that villagers have dubbed them the 'double act'. In fact, so much trust has been lost over the past few years that people have begun to make changes to their wills to avoid being buried by the vicar. When one man's wife died recently, the word went round that he did not want the vicar to know. In the past three years the majority of covenants have been removed from the Benefice, some preferring instead to give to the Friends of St Peter's - a fund set up to raise money for the fabric of Ropley Church.
It was the Rev Such's marriage to his deacon three and a half years ago that caused such outrage in the village. The breakdown of his former marriage was reported widely at the time, though details have always been scant: Such, a former solicitor, is not afraid to challenge anything that puts him in an unfavourable light. Several newspapers have printed apologies and settled out of court to avoid damaging litigation. Nevertheless, the bare bones of his marital history are worth restating.
In 1990, he arrived at Ropley, with his wife and five children, as the parish vicar. Having initially trained as a Methodist minister, this was his first full-time appointment in the Church of England. His wife, Elizabeth, appeared to be a gentle, withdrawn woman and her husband let it be known that she had not married him to be a vicar's wife and her duties would therefore be minimal. Elizabeth, however, did her bit by visiting old people in the parish and is still remembered fondly.
Shortly after her appointment in spring 1993, the vicar seemed to spend more and more time with his curate, the widow and artist Tana Riviere. As one parishioner said: 'They became virtually inseparable, so that, rather than take different services, things were duplicated. When the atmosphere became really hostile and a day of prayer for reconciliation was held at the church, the vicar and Tana stayed all day, like two bookends at either end of the altar. It was very intimidating and everyone felt they were setting themselves apart from us.'
Former church warden John Goddard found it impossible to work with the vicar. Such was clearly higher church than Ropley was used to, but while his 'showmanship' was accepted, his authoritarian manner was not. 'Nor did people like it when he got one of the church helpers to lead him to the pulpit to give the sermon,' says Goddard. 'It was the sort of formality more suitable for a cathedral.' Long before, and quite separate from his marriage breakdown, a row had developed between the vicar and his organist and choir mistress, Barbara Longlands. Before Christmas in 1994, the situation got so bad that a 'choir support group' was formed to act as a buffer between the two parties. But it soon became apparent that their differences could not be reconciled and Mrs Longlands eventually resigned. One parishioner said: 'What had once been the finest village choir in Hampshire, with more than 40 members, disintegrated into nothing.'
By the spring of 1995 Such had divorced his wife for her adultery and let it publicly be known that, ever since the family had arrived in the benefice, the marriage had been in a state of 'terminal decline'. With Elizabeth living away from the village on income support and having made at least two attempts on her own life, the strength of feeling for her plight was such that £600 was raised in a collection on her behalf.
Then, in August of that year, unbeknown to the bishop or to the residents of Ropley, Rev Such was married privately in a registry office in Shepton Mallet to Mrs de la Riviere. Parishioners only found out when someone spotted a notice in the Church Times.
Parishioners claim that it is not the fact that he is divorced that has caused such bitterness in the parish, but his inability to listen or accept fault. 'If he'd been open with us from the beginning, and if Elizabeth hadn't felt that she'd been banned by her husband from coming back to the village, then we'd have been sympathetic to the divorce,' says a former member of his congregation. 'But it was the subtle intimidation which made us think, 'Hang on, I thought the Church was supposed to represent fairness and a firm moral line." Now the parish is not paying its way. Once it had no problem raising its annual contribution to the diocese. For 1998, this figure was assessed at £24,000. But only £5,000 was actually raised. This means the parish is being supported by the diocese. The vicar is adamant that he has done no wrong and draws his inspiration from the solid virtues of his 19th-century predecessor Samuel Maddock, whom the village also attempted to evict. Undoubtedly Such feels persecuted by a self-righteous few and the last time he took a fortnight's holiday, people flooded back into the church. Now it seems he tries to time his holidays so that he is in Ropley in time for the parish's ill-attended Sunday services.
At one time, St Peter's, with its large, supportive congregation, was the hub of the community. But this unholy war has ripped the heart out of it. In the neighbouring church of West Tisted, the churchyard has been sadly neglected and the small wooden church of Monkwood is no longer in use. A few people have stopped going to church altogether, but most cross over to neighbouring parishes.
Today the infamy of Ropley no longer centres on what the Rev Such has or has not done but on the failure of the Church of England to deal with this crisis in its midst, which highlights the bishops' lack of authority. Demands for the vicar's removal have long been met with only bland bureaucratic responses. The bishop's advice was sought from as early as January 1995, when two attempts at conciliation were made.
However, by July 1996, the Rev Dr John Davey reported to the bishop that in his opinion there was no possibility of reconciliation between the two parties. On this basis it was hoped that the bishop would authorise a tribunal and oust Such for 'serious breakdown of pastoral relationship between the incumbent and his parishioners'.
In December 1996, the new Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, wrote to the parish referring to the 'wretched pastoral situation' and, while admitting that the present 'impasse' in the Benefice couldn't be allowed to continue without clear resolution, he concluded that a legal inquiry would be immensely destructive for all the parties involved. 'It would,' he said, 'be costly and divisive and indeed would only serve to exacerbate the tensions within the Benefice'.
The bishop's refusal to go down the tribunal route had far-reaching consequences and, shortly afterwards, five out of the six church wardens resigned. It was then, too, that the rival Sunday services were begun. A year later the atmosphere was still so acrimonious that the bishop took the unusual step of licensing the dean and four canons from Winchester Cathedral to take services in the village hall and operate independently of the incumbent. Few people in Ropley are prepared to talk openly about the problems in this small community.
What particularly incenses people in these parts is that because Such holds the freehold of the Benefice, removal is virtually impossible. This archaic 'job for life' position, which developed in feudal Britain, remains to this day and in effect means that there is no easy mechanism for sacking troublesome clergy. 'There is a very real chance that Royston could be with us for another 16 years until he retires at 70,' says one despondent parishioner. Such, however, defends the freehold status, saying that it protects the vicar against the whim of a group of people or the Lord of the Manor. And Ropley, he has claimed, is full of 'would-be lords of the manor'.
Humphrey Carr, a solicitor who has lived in the village for 24 years, is now doubtful whether the situation will ever be resolved or indeed whether he will ever again feel able to worship in the village church. 'One can understand that in the days of Trollope it was desirable that clergy should not have been in fear of losing their job for doing or saying something that was not popular with their bishop or local squire,' he says. 'But at the end of the 20th century the freehold is a complete anachronism. It must be in the church's best interest for bishops to be given the power to transfer incumbents where there has been a clear breakdown of pastoral relationship in the parish. The General Synod should address this as a matter of urgency. The church in Ropley was once the centre of worship and social gathering, now the soul has been ripped out of our community.'
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