JSO priest accused of vandalising Magna Carta barred from preaching
An Anglican priest accused of attacking the Magna Carta with chisels during a Just Stop Oil stunt has been barred from preaching by the Church of England.
Reverend Sue Parfitt, formerly of St Mary’s Cotham, Bristol, had an application to renew her permission to officiate (PTO) in church rejected by her diocese earlier this week.
The 82-year-old is awaiting trial alongside biology teacher Judith Bruce, 85, for the alleged damage of the 13th century royal charter at the British Library in central London on May 10.
The Diocese of Bristol has confirmed that Rev Parfitt is not permitted to preach, conduct baptisms or preside at communion while she is facing charges of criminal damage, The Telegraph reports.
The retired vicar, who became one of the first women to be ordained by the Church of England when female priests were introduced in 1994, had requested a new license to serve as an active priest, having not held one since December 2022.
Reverend Sue Parfitt (pictured), formerly of St Mary’s Cotham, Bristol, had an application to renew her permission to officiate (PTO) in church rejected by her diocese earlier this week
Rev Parfitt and Judith Bruce appeared to knock a hammer and chisel into the glass casing protecting the historic document in the Library’s Treasury Gallery
Rev Parfitt claimed the Anglican church was trying to ‘silence climate protest’ after the Rt Rev Vivienne Faull, the Bishop of Bristol, rejected her bid to officiate in services.
‘The bishop’s action is all part of the effort to silence climate protest and I imagine she has been ‘leant on’ in some way,’ she told The Telegraph.
‘This is the church behaving like the courts, the judges, the [General] Medical Council (GMC) and other professional bodies, the press and the Government, all determined not to allow truth to be spoken to power, and prevented from doing so by the power of the fossil fuel and agri industries.’
In a letter to the bishop, she fumed that there was a ‘complete lack of understanding for the path I am on’.
It continued: ‘My court cases will probably never be completed as there will always be more arrestable actions that are called for if we are to bring down the power of the fossil fuel industry which is intent upon placing profit before the wellbeing of human and non-human life on Earth.’
Along with the Magna Carta stunt, Rev Parfitt has been involved in a number of environmental protests, including an Exctinction Rebellion lock-on in central London in April 2019 and an Insulate Britain M25 road block in October 2021.
She is also part of Christian Climate Action, who sparked fury in November 2023 when eco-activists crashed an Evensong service being broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Rev Parfitt and fellow pensioner Judith Bruce have pleaded not guilty to a charge of damaging property in relation to the Magna Carta stunt.
The elderly pair, who are awaiting trial, held up a sign reading ‘the Government is breaking the law’
The elderly pair entered the British Library at around 10.40am and were pictured appearing to knock the Magna Carta’s protective casing with a hammer and chisel in what was branded ‘reckless vandalism’.
They were then seen holding a sign reading ‘The government is breaking the law’, while apparently gluing themselves to the casing.
The Magna Carta is a revered legal document dating back more than 800 years.
It established for the first time the principle that neither the government or the monarch is above the law and forms part of Britain’s uncodified constitution.
This famous royal charter of rights was agreed by King John at Runnymede, near Windsor, on June 15, 1215.
