Standing in the wooden pulpit dressed in my long black cassock, I smiled down at the congregation before me, but my heart was heavy. I had just finished preaching a sermon about forgiveness. I was hoping that when the time came, my flock would find it in their hearts to forgive me.

After I’d seen out the congregation, I retreated to my study in the vicarage which had been home to me, my wife and our three young children for three years. I picked up the phone. I had a call to make that I just couldn’t put off any longer.

You see, I’d lost my faith.

I was the vicar