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Kung-Fu Clergy

Anglican clergy are to be taught martial arts in "crouching vicar, hidden verger" self-defence classes.
The courses in tae kwon do - a Korean martial art similar to karate - will show church workers how to deal with attacks, after a survey found that one-in-eight ministers had been assaulted.

An instructor will teach men and women of the cloth how to calm assailants and, if things turn nasty, restrain violent parishioners or members of the public.

Assailants have ranged from homeless people and psychiatric patients aggressively begging for money, to middle class members of congregations angry at being denied their preferred dates for weddings or baptisms.

The martial arts classes will be organised in February by the Manufacturing, Science and Finance union which has recruited hundreds of Church of England clergy.

The Reverend Bill Ward, head of the union's clergy section, said: "It is a sad fact of modern life that members of the clergy will come into contact with individuals who are likely to resort to violence.

"Most clergy receive no training in dealing with violent people, so we are making a start with our own self defence classes and hope the Church of England will follow suit."

Representing God was said by the union to be more dangerous than working as a doctor or a probation officer, with many of the assaults taking place in church grounds or vicarages.

A two-year survey of 1,300 clergy in south-east England, by the Royal Holloway college, University of London, found 12% had been assaulted, 22% threatened with violence and 70% subjected to verbal abuse.

Organisers of the classes hope they will give the clergy the confidence to deal with troublesome cases rather than seek confrontations.

Roger Lyons, MSF general secretary, said: "They deserve to be able to carry out their work while feeling secure in their workplace from verbal and physical attack."

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