From here:

Rev Howard, who is his 40s, publicly defended the sanctity of marriage last year after he displayed a poster at his church condemning gay marriage.

The fluorescent green sign, posted outside the St Mary’s Church in Ferndown, Dorset, stated: ‘Marriage = 1 Man + 1 Woman’.

At the time, he said: ‘The Government has no mandate to change the definition of marriage, and civil partnerships already give equal rights to same-sex couples.

‘Changing the law would leave clergy like me open to charges of discrimination if I refused on principle to take a same sex wedding. Is that really the tolerant society we want to create?

‘In displaying our poster, we hope marriage as we have received it will be maintained.’

And in the face of criticism from equal rights groups, he preached that ‘society is much stronger when marriage is promoted, honoured and protected’.

But he was exposed as a hypocrite after the church found out about his affair with a married woman.

He was handed a five-year ban by the Diocese of Salisbury, the seventh largest Church of England area covering Dorset and most of Wiltshire.

It’s interesting to note that, while Rev Howard is not allowed to minister for five years because of his affair, other vicars who are in active same-sex civil partnerships – some of whom will soon marry – are allowed to continue their ministry unimpeded even though they, too, are breaking the rules of the Church of England.

I’m not arguing that Rev Howard should not be suspended but it would be at least consistent if we saw the same enthusiasm for disciplining same-sex transgressors as has been demonstrated in the Howard case.

As most will be delighted to point out, Rev Howard is a hypocrite. The difference between his succumbing to the call of his lower nature and the Anglican gay lobby who do likewise is that he doesn’t seem to be trying to justify his fallenness by asking the church to bless it.