A new breed of clergyperson could be coming soon to a church near you. The vigilante vicar, the kick-boxing curate, the minister with mace could be your next pastor. Better versed in GBH than GNB. Steve Goddard reports…

A new crucifix on a chain is the shape of things to come. Made out of solid silver, this religious symbol looks perfectly harmless, but it houses an alarm loud enough to force Dracula to his knees in abject terror.

'One tug will set it off,' explains Tony McCarthy of Avon Silversmiths, the alarm's inventors. 'And it will be loud!'

The alarm will be launched at this year's National Christian Resources Exhibition (CRE) on 19-22 May at Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey. Clergy visiting the exhibition will also be able to sample some restraint training by a former police detective. Nervous clergy who answer the vicarage door to strangers will learn how to recognise the first signs of trouble and react accordingly.

Some ministers may not need to be taught. The new survey of vicars and violence, carried out by CRE, reveals what is happening on the ground. Rev Bill Mason, a Methodist minister in Egham, Surrey, is one of the clergy quoted in the survey.

When grabbed by a man in the street demanding money, Bill's response was perhaps unexpected in a clergyman: 'I kneed him in the testicles, smashed his face and left him there. He was smelling of drink and had told me to give him money – or else.'

But other more reverend gentlemen could do with beefing up their approach, according to the survey's findings. Rev. Marshall, from rural Wales, for example: 'A drunk interrupted evensong. I was struck in the face and knocked out,' he says.

Rev. MacDonald from Exeter agrees: 'A drunk caller got my head in an arm lock while he told me what was wrong with the church.' And Rev. David New from Birmingham was pelted with stones while out singing Christmas carols.

All this seems a million miles away from the experience of American ministers. A change in the law in Kentucky now allows them to carry a concealed weapon in their churches – in defence against armed robberies.

Many British vicarages and manses have already thrown away their street signs, because the houses are a magnet for beggars, addicts, drunks and mentally disturbed people. Rev. Dorothy Williams from London experienced this when a man came to her home. 'He got aggressive and threatened to knife my husband. I later discovered that he was just out of prison where he had been serving a sentence for murder.'

Maybe the time is coming when the vicarage welcome mat will have to be junked in favour of a judo mat.

According to the CRE survey...

• One in 10 UK clergy have been attacked
• Nearly one in three have been threatened
• Nearly one in five clergy families have been threatened or attacked
• About one in seven say there are no-go areas within the communities they serve
• Nearly one in five have discussed training in coping with the threat of violence
• More than one in three would like self-defence training

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