SENSELESS DESECRATION OF DEVON CHURCH

Chronicle (Levin), 14 January 1948, Page 3

SENSELESS DESECRATION OF DEVON CHURCH

♦ Keceived Tuesdav, 7 p.m. LONDON, Jan. 13.' The Iiev. Iiicliard Clough, who recently received considerable publicitv both iu Dritain aud New Zealand, because of his criticism of coiiditlons in the Dominion, is again in the news f ollowing events in his parisli chureh of St. John the BajJtist, at Yarsombi, Devon. On the morning follSwing the e.e of the twelfth night (Januarv 6), Wlien the vicar visited the churcli he found it had been.desocrated by au- intruder who had apparently eonducted biaek mass ritual in the preeincts. AU g'ravestones bearing the sign of Lha Crcsp, had been overturned, the image of Christ had been placed head downwards. in, thesdftor.way ehureh and inside the building liymn books had been turned face downwards, altar eandles and liangings burned and the altar frontal reversed. Near one c-andle was found a singed white eat's paw and burned communion wafers. The -eolleet for the iirst Sunday in Advent, which begins 1 ' Almigiity God giye us grace that we may east away the powers of darkness and put upon us the armour of light," had been torn out of the Bible and the iirst lines scored ont with pencil.

On Sundav, as the result of consideration of the matter by the Bishop of Exeter, the Rev. Clough eonducted a rare form of service known as 1 ' intention of reparation," which, it is laid down, should be eonducted in the case where a ehureh has been deseerated but wliere tlie Bishop does not consider it should be reconseerated. A man named Jack Graham Makin, of Tonbridge, Kent, has been arrested in eonnection with the events in the chnrch and remanded on a charge of causing malicious damage.