THE Revd Eric Britt, who left St Vincent’s Chaplaincy in the Algarve in July 2006 to lead an independent congregation of All Saints, Almancil, is to return permanently to the UK for consultation and treatment after a suspected heart attack. He resigned last month, and will take his final service at All Saints on Sunday.
The diocese in Europe removed Mr Britt’s licence after the break from St Vincent’s. Two years’ conflict among the three congregations of the chaplaincy had resulted in an Archdeacon’s visitation initiated by Mr Britt, which concluded that there had been complete pastoral breakdown.
He received a remuneration package after bringing in the clergy trade union Amicus. The union described the case at the time as “an absolutely shocking case of bullying and discrimination”, and accused the Suffragan Bishop in Europe, the Rt Revd David Hamid, of “siding with a powerful minority [of the congregation], with no regard for natural justice” (News, 16 March 2006).
Mr Britt said at the time that Bishop Hamid had described his treatment by elements of the church council as “the most vicious and malicious campaign against a priest” that he had ever come across. Mr Britt told the Church Times in July 2006 that he did not subscribe to the view that the issues were about a perceived persecution of Evangelical priests in the diocese in Europe.
He has been on sick leave since February, and was to have left at the end of May, but was advised by the recently retired Bishop of Paraguay, the Rt Revd John Ellison, that he should go earlier on health grounds. He reiterated the circumstances in a letter to his congregation, in which he emphasised that, “Knowing the Algarve, the decision to bring forward my leaving date could be misinterpreted, and I just want to say that if you hear anything contrary to what I have written above, it is not true.”
Mr Britt has expressed his gratitude to the Church of England Pensions Board for its offer of a house near Cambridge.
Paul Luckman, a member of the congregation at All Saints, who owns the expatriate newspaper The Portugal News, and accompanied Mr Britt to hospital when he had the heart attack, said on Wednesday: “We have given him an excellent retirement package, and the Church of England Pensions Board has found him a house very close to his children. When push came to shove, they were just brilliant.”
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