The Archdeacon of Buckingham, the Venerable Karen Gorham, 51, was brought up in a naturist family, though she gave up going nude on beaches in her teenage years.

The unmarried Archdeacon, 51 -- who was named by Downing Street on Thursday as the next Bishop of Sherborne -- has even written a controversial treatise defending the practise of disrobing in public.

Part of the area of Dorset that she will now oversee includes the famous Studland nudist beach near Poole, where she spent many summer holidays with her parents, who have been keen naturists for most of their lives.

Archdeacon Gorham and her younger sister also went to the Arcadians of Greenglades naturism club near the family home in Billericay, Essex.

The Archdeacon said the Church often portrayed the naked body as something rude to be covered up, but Christians shouldn't feel uncomfortable wandering around in the nude, as long as they were not breaking the law.

In a theological booklet she co-wrote with an academic 15 years ago while a vicar in Maidstone, Kent, Archdeacon Gorham said: 'The connection of nakedness and sex, though it may seem inescapable, need not necessarily be so...

'Life in a naturist club, or a naturist resort, is just about doing things which one generally does with clothes on, but unclothed when the circumstances permit it.'

Karen Gorham stopped going to naturist beaches in her teens but continued to be supportive of the lifestyle

The Archdeacon is said to have visited several naturist clubs, including Arcadians of Greenglades (above)

The booklet also claimed naturists feared 'hostility and ostracism' from fellow Christians.

Archdeacon Gorham, who is the eighth woman to be made a bishop, added last night: 'Naturism is often misunderstood, so people jump to the wrong conclusions.

'But it is a natural way of doing things, and gives people freedom.'

Her parents, Colin and Avril, are regular churchgoers who still go on naturist caravan holidays.

But the Rev George Curry, a vicar in Newcastle and former chairman of the conservative Church Society, said the Archdeacon's comments made her unsuitable to be a bishop.

'Wandering around with nothing on goes against traditional teaching,' he said.

'Except for medical emergencies, nakedness should be kept between man and wife.'

END