A RETIRED priest who was present in possession of the drugs crystal meth and ketamine has been permanently barred from ministry within the Church of England, despite his claim that they assisted him in his “pastoral mission”.
The Revd Geoffrey Baulcomb retired in 2003, and, over much of the past 20 years, has held Permission to Officiate within the dioceses of Chichester and St Edmundsbury & Ipswich.
During his retirement, he ministered at St Mary the Virgin, Eastbourne.
In 2022, Sussex Police found crystal meth, a category A drug, and ketamine, a category B drug, in his home in Eastbourne. Mr Baulcomb was given a police caution, and shortly after, proceedings under the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM) were brought against him.
The case against him concluded with a judgment handed down on 23 August, which prohibited Mr Baulcomb from ordained ministry for all times.
There is not any evidence that Mr Baulcomb supplied drugs to anyone else, but he admitted to having purchased “a small amount of crystal meth” online, and to having “sampled” a few of it on his own. He also admitted to having “periodically” purchased drugs over the previous 20 years, and to having once injected himself with heroin.
During the proceedings, Mr Baulcomb argued that “experimenting with drugs or by providing a venue at his home for drug-taking higher enables him to relate and minister to individuals with difficulties as a part of his pastoral care” of them, in keeping with the judgment.
He “suggested that his activities should not misconduct because they assist him in carrying out his pastoral mission”; however the tribunal considered this justification to be “entirely misconceived” and to display “a fundamental misunderstanding of the character of his Holy Orders”.
The tribunal concluded that Mr Baulcomb was not “truly contrite”, though noted that he was of previous good character, and gave him credit for having pleaded guilty to the fees.
None the less, the tribunal decided that the suitable penalty was prohibition for all times — probably the most serious punishment that will be exacted on a priest who doesn’t hold any office.
There was, the tribunal said, “no realistic prospect” of Mr Baulcomb, who’s 78, being “rehabilitated” into ministry, “even without regard to his age. . . If one does have regard to his age, the Tribunal sees absolutely no prospect of the Respondent being fit for ministry in his remaining lifetime,” the judgment concluded.
A spokesperson from the diocese of Chichester said that the Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, had immediately withdrawn Mr Baulcomb’s Permission to Officiate when he was informed of the police motion, and that Mr Baulcomb “was asked to stop attending his local church”.
