Roger Preece is evidence that the Church of England still has holy rollers.

Roger Preece, 44, has been dubbed The Rolling Reverend after skating up and down the aisle of his church in roller blades.

Parishioners at St Mary’s Church, Bowden, near Altrincham, Cheshire, had expected a conventional sermon on the Resurrection.

But midway through his service the Rev Preece slipped on his blades, stepped out of the pulpit and took to the boards.

The one-time investment banker hit upon the roller-blading idea as a way of illustrating the astonishment that would have greeted Christ’s Resurrection.

I doubt that Rev. Roger needed to go to these lengths to astonish his congregation: the mere fact that an Anglican vicar believes in the resurrection is astonishing enough.