You see it just doesn't seem right to have coloured people in the Church of England wearing mitres and carrying crosiers. Where will it all end? There'll be bishops in the House of Lords with thick Nigerian accents. There'll bishops speaking to Prince Philip at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day with funny Indian accents. And these ethnic minorities might make terrible grammatical mistakes and split their infinitives.

But some traditionalist evangelicals called for the vote not only to be declared null but for him to be sacked as a clergyman because of his decision to marry his partner despite a Church-imposed bar on clerics entering same-sex marriages.

Peter Ball, 83, was sentenced to 32 months for misconduct in public office and 15 months for indecent assaults, to run concurrently.

The former Bishop of Lewes and Bishop of Gloucester used "religion as a cloak" to carry out the abuse between the 1970s and 1990s, the court heard.

The Church of England said there were "no excuses".

Ball was described by the judge at the Old Bailey, Mr Justice Wilkie, as a man who did "so much good and so much harm".

Dr Paul Weston from Ridley Hall preached on the readings for St Matthew's Day. He spoke humorously of his experience at a Speed Awareness Course (on which he had been trying to enrol for years). He noted that for many on such a course sin was to be 'caught out'. The apostle's words that "God has shone in our hearts" shows that the real question is whether our life matches that of Jesus Christ. "Jesus came not to call the righteous, but the serious", he said.