The troubled relationship between Dr Gomes and the church hierarchy in the island first became public last July when Dr Gomes brought a petition to Tynwald calling for the governor to request a select committee to examine employment rights of clergy relating to bullying and harassment.

The petition was due to be debated at the October 20 sitting of Tynwald, but this did not happen as Robert Paterson and Archdeacon Andrew Brown launched a Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM) against Dr Gomes.

Tynwald Standing Orders require that no petition of doleance can be heard so long as a petitioner is under any form of investigation.

In a statement issued by supporters of Dr Gomes, they said: 'The witnesses would have had parliamentary privilege and it was clear that very many who had witnessed the sustained bullying of Dr Gomes would be willing to "put their heads above the parapet".

'But it was not to be ... the Bishop and the Archdeacon . ... put a complete stop on the Petition until the Clergy Discipline Measure was settled.'

Frustrated parishioners launched an online petition accusing theBishop and Archdeacon of bullying and harassment and calling for their resignations.

In five days the petition drew 196 signatures, including several high profile names.

The petition did not claim to support Dr Gomes, but a number of signatories made the link by voicing their support for Dr Gomes.

At the time Bishop Robert said the petition was not supported by the Archbishops of Canterbury or York.

He said it was a 'personal attack' by 'one or two people'.

Dr Gomes and his supporters were referred to a lawyer who practises ecclesiastical law who concluded the Clergy Discipline Measure is based almost entirely on hearsay, therefore not admissible in court.

The lawyer also claimed a potential violation of the Data Protection Act.

Separately, Dr Gomes' wife launched a Clergy Discipline Measure against the Bishop specifying sustained bullying and harassment of her husband. The Archbishop of York has allowed this CDM against the Bishop to proceed.

More than 20 people from the island have written to the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, asking him to intervene.

However, each of them received a standard response stating that the Archbishop could not intervene.

Five out of the nine members of the Parish Parochial Council (PCC) for Arbory and St Mary's have resigned since Dr Gomes made his announcement.

Meanwhile parishioners are contesting the Archdeacon's Clergy Discipline Measure against Dr Gomes, 'identifying it as a blatant attempt to interfere with the ageless Manx civil right to obtain justice though Tynwald,' they wrote.

One vocal parishioner, Roger Rawcliffe, a former member of Synod and Diocesan Board of Finance, wrote to the Bishop reiterating several grievances he first raised months ago.

He wrote: 'He [Jules Gomes] is in my experience the finest preacher on a regular basis that I have heard, and this includes the very distinguished clerics I was privileged to hear for some years at the University of Cambridge and subsequently in London and at a famous public school.'

However Dr Gomes does not intend to quit the Isle of Man. In his resignation letter, Dr Gomes wrote: 'It has been the greatest of the Lord's many mercies to (his wife) Kshitija and me that we retain the almost universal support of those amongst whom we have served.'

For the sake of parishioners who have been supportive, he said: 'I intend to continue serving in the Isle of Man under alternative episcopal oversight within the Anglican Communion.'

END