A Suffolk priest will retire after more than five decades of service which has also seen him publish his own volume of supernatural tales.
Canon John Barnes has spent the past 10 years as the parish priest at St Felix RC Church in Felixstowe - and more than 50 years being a clergyman in various churches.
He has now decided to retire in early September, a year before he turns 80 and says it is time to begin a "new era".
Father John said: “I have been very happy. In most parishes, there are usually one or two difficult parishioners but here there have been none!
"I love the church building and my ‘coffin-shaped’ house. I will miss the town.”
He grew up as an Anglican Christian in Chester but began his journey into Roman Catholicism over 30 years ago - which he documented in his memoir.
“I grew up in an intensely Anglican family but had always been interested in Roman Catholicism without knowing much about it," the father said.
After completing University, Father John went to Oxford to be an Anglican cleric and served in Newcastle upon Tyne and at St Asaph Cathedral in north Wales.
He spent time as vicar in Walsingham and Wymondham before going to a Catholic seminary in 1994 and subsequently being appointed as curate in Lowestoft.
He then spent time as a clergyman in Bury St Edmunds and Dereham before finally moving to Felixstowe in 2014.
For the past 10 years, he has been the priest at the Grade II listed church and has formed bonds with parishes throughout Suffolk.
During this time, Father John has also written a ghost story, a biography, and columns for free magazines in Felixstowe.
After retiring in September Father John wishes to move to a small cottage by the quayside in Wells-next-the-Sea to sketch, walk and read.
He said: “To my parishioners, I say thank you for your kindness and good humour and for putting up with me.
“I am just as enthusiastic being a Catholic as I was 30 years ago. It is wonderful being a priest. I love it."
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