Wanted: Vicar for tropical paradise
The Church of England is looking for a new vicar for Ascension Island.
The Church of England has advertised for a vicar to serve in one of the most remote parishes in the world: Ascension Island, just south of the equator in the South Atlantic.
Canon Nicholas Turner served on Ascension Island for five years in the 1990s, and is part of the panel looking for a new vicar, which will pay around £13,000 per year.
He told ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 5 live that he absolutely loved his time on the tropical island, which is hot all year round. He said there is "plenty of fishing" in the blue seas, alcohol is tax-free, and one of the attractions is being able to watch the turtles, which come once a year from the Caribbean to lay their eggs on the island's golden sandy beaches.
The church, St Mary's in Georgetown, is based on the cricket pitch, which means that, whenever there's a marriage, it's a case of "Wedding Stops Play".
Canon Turner added that the island's inhabitants, numbering nearly 1,000, are mostly young people, who work for the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, the RAF, the European Space Agency - and there are even "some spies".
Currently there has been just one applicant for the job, but he hopes that once its attractions are publicised, there will be plenty more.
(Photos: Ascension government website).
This clip is originally from 5 live Daily on Friday 30 October 2015.
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