The Rev. Martin Dudley is a First Class A$$

But don’t take my word on the priest who officiated at *that* gay wedding. Read for yourself.

This is particularly outstanding:

But there are some who dispute Dr Dudley's portrayal of himself as "the Christian good neighbour". Peter Bill, 61, a journalist, lives on the third-floor of a block of flats just yards from the church and says that in his experience, Dr Dudley is quite the opposite. Moreover, that it yields an interesting insight into the way Dr Dudley operates.

"The bedroom window of my flat is 30 feet from the church's bell tower," says Mr Bill. "When I bought the flat in 1999, the bell was not working but subsequently Dudley had it fixed and the bloody bell would chime incredibly loudly every hour on the hour from 7am to midnight. I found it hard to sleep and spoke to other residents who felt similarly, so I dropped a polite note asking if they could reduce the bell ringing from 8am to 10pm so that we could get a proper night's sleep.

"Dudley called and what he said was so bizarre that I've never forgotten it. He told me: 'The patients in the intensive care unit of St Bart's Hospital [also a neighbour] like the bells to ring because it reminds them that they're still alive.' I was taken aback. I said: 'We're only asking you to cut back two hours, presumably they still know they're alive at 1am and you don't ring the bell then.' But he wouldn't listen. He was totally dismissive. I'd never met anyone so arrogant, intemperate and inflexible."

Later, when Mr Bill happened to meet Dr Dudley's boss - the Archdeacon of London Peter Delaney, ironically the man the Bishop of London will now charge with investigating Dr Dudley - the Archdeacon offered to raise the issue, only to write back that he had "tried and failed".

Then two years ago, Mr Bill bumped into Michael Cassidy, a City lawyer and, like Dr Dudley, a City of London councillor. Dr Dudley sits on 14 City of London committees, while Mr Cassidy was previously council leader.

Mr Cassidy agreed to approach Dr Dudley as an "honest broker" over the bells issue, only to be shocked by his response. "He told me he'd agree to the residents' request for £5,000," recalls Mr Cassidy. "The gall of it! I just couldn't believe it."

Mr Bill says that Dr Dudley later justified the £5,000 - to be paid to the church - on the grounds that "if I have the bells turned off, that's the amount it would add to the value of your flats". In disgust, Mr Bill sent an email to Dr Dudley saying he wanted nothing more to do with him. "What a bastard. I told him I'd never met someone with such a manifestly un-Christian attitude to his neighbours."

Asked yesterday to explain his mercenary attitude to the bells, Dr Dudley said: "I'm sorry but I'm not prepared to discuss that. I don't want to be interrogated further."

I imagine he didn’t.