Cheers! Meet the 'Hell-raising' vicar who pulls pints to raise funds for his village church
A Shropshire village vicar whose favourite beer is a lager called Hell works behind the bar at his local to help raise funds for his church.
The Rev Garry Ward says All Saints Church, in Claverley, is in need of new heating and lighting to the tune of about £30,000, and his wages from work in the pub go straight into funds.
Mr Ward can't do as much work as he used to at The Crown Inn following a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, but says he will go on as long as physically possible.
And he says being a friendly face behind the bar has even helped break down barriers and get more people into the pews.
"The church has to go out to where people are and has to be a part of the general community," he said. "Once people have got to know me they tend to start talking about deeper things.
"It helps make people more comfortable with the church and who I am.
"A lot more people come to festival services and I get more people enquiring about weddings, baptisms and funerals."
Mr Ward, 56, says his work behind the bar is more occasional than it used to be as his Parkinson's symptoms can be set off. He is also a disability advisor for the Hereford Diocese.
Before being "called" to a life in the clergy Mr Ward worked as a midwife at Walsall Manor Hospital, delivering babies for 10 years. He was also a prison officer at the former Winson Green Prison, now HM Prison Birmingham.
"It was a calling that came a bit later in life," said Mr Ward. "I feel that all the work I did before was a sort of foundation for what God had in store for me.
"Being a midwife and a prison officer was about helping people," he said. "And in prison I was helping people that society would shun."
The vicar says his favourite tipple is Hell, a Bavarian lager with 700 years of heritage.
He explained that the lager's name has nothing to do with the flames of eternal damnation, but a German word that means 'blonde' or 'bright' and describes the type of brew.
