MALMESBURY Abbey verger Bill Blake has resigned after claiming he has been gagged because he spoke out over a sermon.

Mr Blake, 60, was reacting to the Rev Peter Yacomeni's service in December, which urged parishioners to spend less on luxuries and contribute more to church funds.

The abbey is expecting to run up a deficit of £10,000 this financial year, according to the parochial church council.

Mr Blake, who has been verger for the last 18 months, said the sermon had been a verbal assault on the congregation.

He said he had been banned from talking openly despite apologising to Mr Yacomeni and admitting he may have been hasty talking to the press.

He said: "It would seem that a C of E clergyman can get into the pulpit and make outrageous statements, but one must not in any way challenge this except very quietly, and in a manner which will not attract any attention; one must not rock the boat."

"The response to my apology has been to tell me in effect that to retain my post I must in future refrain from making any contentious public utterances over church matters.

"It is important to me, I do not like people telling me not to speak. They have tried to muzzle me. I have of course refused to accept this condition and felt it best to resign."

Mr Yacomeni, a retired vicar, made his sermon at a time when the abbey is waiting for its newly appointed vicar Neill Archer to be inducted at Easter.

Mr Blake is paid £500 a year before tax for the nine hours a week he estimates it takes to look after the abbey building and prepare for services.

He said nobody had made any rude comments to him and people were as nice as they ever after the story appeared in the Gazette on December 18.

But he worried he would get the sack when chairman of the parochial church council Michael Tombs said there were people within the church agitating for his removal.

Mr Blake, now retired, has been a member of the abbey congregation since 1996 when his job as a senior project manager with the Ministry of Defence moved to Bristol and he came to live in Malmesbury.

He has resigned with immediate effect but will continue with some of his tasks until a new verger is found.

In a statement Archdeacon of Malmesbury, the Venerable Alan Hawker, said: "It is with regret that we note that Bill Blake has chosen to resign as verger of Malmesbury Abbey.

"He was not sacked or 'forced out' as seems to be being reported.

"Mr Blake has served the local church well in the past.

"But he has now decided to resign as verger at the abbey following a request from senior members of the congregation that he consider more carefully the position he holds and the medium he uses when voicing his often strong opinions."

John Lloyd, a spokesman for the Diocese of Bristol, said the Bishop of Bristol, the Rt Rev Michael Hill, currently at the House of Bishops meeting in Leeds this week, had not yet been informed of Mr Blake's decision.

Mr Lloyd said: "Mr Blake's resignation was not a matter of free speech but that of an outspoken individual who should have made it clear he was speaking as a member of the congregation and not as honorary verger.

Church wardens, Chris Jager and John Miller, the members of the parochial church council, and Mr Yacomeni were either unavailable or declined to comment on the resignation this week.