The Church of England is finally rid of its turbulent priest.

Today the Venerable George Austin, Archdeacon of York and contentious spokesman for the Church's disaffected traditionalists, retired.

Many disagreed with him, but even they had to admire his preparedness to put his head above the pulpit and say publicly what others said behind closed vestry doors.

But the controversy may not end today.

We wait with keen anticipation to see whether the cleric's first novel will put the cat among the Minster Yard pigeons.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.