THE new minister for Bridestowe and Sourton has an interesting and unusual sideline to his parochial duties ? he is an adviser on the paranormal.

The Rev Arthur Parsons, 58, is a Ministry of Deliverance and Healing adviser. The position takes him all over the county to deal with a wide range of conditions from the paranormal and poltergeists, to the healing of memories and physical problems.

Mr Parsons learned about the paranormal in the 1980s under the guidance of the adviser for the Truro Diocese while working in Ludgvan, near Penzance.

He said: ?I decided to do this because I had a vocational feel about it, almost a God incident.

?I had been to art school in Falmouth and I had always thought of art as a kind of healing; it can be very therapeutic.

?I trained and gained experience by watching the adviser and seeing how he treated each different situation.?

Mr Parsons has dealt with a variety of paranormal cases in Devon, including a cottage rectory where the elderly lady owner, who hated having children in her house, died, but could not ?bear to leave? and was not happy when children visited the dwelling.

After performing a requiem eucharist, a communion service with the special intention of releasing the spirit to go on to somewhere better, the house was freed and he heard nothing more.

He describes another case: ?On priory grounds a family were extending their house and digging into foundations when they started to experience poltergeist happenings.

?We discovered they were living very near to a burial site where monks used to be laid to rest.

?In the middle of the night the family would hear a cart, with hard iron wheels, whisking off dead bodies, which they said came and stopped right outside their home.

?They got very scared by this and thought it was a portent to their own death. I had to tell the person most affected by it, it was an impersonal, neutral thing, that they could rerun the past, and what they saw was not about them. The only thing they should feel was annoyed at being woken up in the night.

?People often comment I?m not afraid of what I face, but it?s because I believe Jesus is the boss, and anything else falls in line. I treat matters in an unaggressive but confident manner. I know the Lord and I believe in him.?

Mr Parsons also treated a pub where pots and pans were floating in the kitchen and ?freaking out? the cat, and cases where people had become involved in the occult.

He comes to West Devon from a temporary position in Chudleigh, near Exeter. Before that he served in North Tracey.

Mr Parsons was licensed by the Rt Rev John Garton, Bishop of Plymouth, last Thursday at Bridestowe?s St Bridget?s Church.

The ceremony was attended by family, friends, members of the parish and the Okehampton team.

Mr Parsons is married to Margaret and his hobbies include making apple wine and painting. He is also looking forward to taking walks on Dartmoor.

He said: ?We have had a wonderful welcome to the area. It?s a lovely place and we are very happy to be here.?