Tensions which split church revealed
JOB security, finances and the high number of clergy in Guernsey have been revealed as a few of the long-term tensions which sparked Guernsey's split from the Diocese of Winchester.
Outgoing Dean of Guernsey the Very Rev. Canon Paul Mellor, pictured, officially handed in his notice this weekend and announced he would be retiring to Salisbury this summer after 11 years in his role.
But the reverberations from the split earlier this year are likely to be felt long after he leaves.
Long-running tensions between the Bailiwick and the UK finally erupted in January after worries about how a sexual misconduct complaint was investigated in Jersey.
But Mr Mellor said that while this had been the catalyst for the split, there had been longer-term problems under the surface with the complex relationship. 'The major difference between the Church of England and Guernsey is that how life is ordered in the church in Guernsey is not subject to measures of the General Synod, unless they are applied under special arrangement,' Mr Mellor said.
