June 20 2000

Vicar Plans Sex Change

UPPER Stratton vicar Reverend Peter Stone is to undergo a sex change.

Mr Stone, who serves St Philip’s Church, will be known as the Reverend Carol Stone after undergoing gender redesignation later this summer.

He will continue his work in the church both before and after the operation.

The congregation of St Philip’s was told about Mr Stone’s decision by the Bishop of Bristol, the Right Reverend Barry Rogerson, after the morning service yesterday.

Church wardens and members of the Parochial Church Council were also consulted and have pledged their support to the vicar.

Mr Stone, who lives in the church vicarage in Beechcroft Road, said today: The church has been immensely supportive in this whole matter.  I could not have asked for greater help.

He said he was looking forward to returning to his ministry in Upper Stratton after his operation.

Mr Stone, 46, was ordained in the Diocese of Salisbury in 1978 and first served in Bradford-on-Avon.

He was chaplain and head of religious studies in Dauntsey’s School, West Lavington, before moving to Upper Stratton in 1996.

As well as serving in the church, he acts as chaplain to the Territorial Army in Swindon.

He has been married twice but now lives alone.

A spokesman for Bishop Rogerson, who has responsibility for Swindon, said: Mr Stone has been under medical supervision for some time, and has been diagnosed by two psychiatrists as having a condition for which the appropriate medical treatment is gender redesignation.

There are no ethical or ecclesiastical legal reasons why the Reverend Carol Stone should not continue in ministry in the Church of England.

After an initial meeting with the churchwardens and standing committee of the parish, members of the Parochial Church Council were consulted and they made the decision to support Mr Stone on continuing to be their parish priest after gender redesignation has taken place.

Philip Steele, a parishioner and local Swindon councillor (Lab, St Philip), said the community was behind Mr Stone.

He said: He is probably the best vicar I have come across in my life and I fully support him.

As a local councillor and a member of the population, I can say that this is obviously a very difficult personal time for him but he is an extremely good vicar.

He is very widely liked in circles of people outside the church as well as in it.

He has acquired quite a lot of respect and goodwill among the local population.

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