Stolen silver communion sets recovered days after church break-in

Three silver home communion sets valued at £500 each which were stolen during a break-in at a Harrogate church, have been found by council workmen.

Thieves broke into St John’s church, Bilton in the early hours of Friday 16 January, and stole the three communion sets, together with petty cash boxes. The intruders caused an estimated £5000 damage in the process, smashing the window over the entrance door to climb in, and then trying to rip out wall safes, before moving on to the office and ripping the doorframe and adjacent plaster off.

The theft came on the eve of the departure of Team Rector, the Revd Lesley Bentley, to the Diocese of Lichfield where she has been appointed as Director of Training. John Bentley, Lesley's husband said, “The church office was completely trashed, and the door to the room with the safe in it was badly damaged. The communion sets were each given in memory of somebody, so had huge sentimental value." One of the silver communion sets had belonged to the Rev Bentley's father who had received it at his ordination.

But all's well that ends well. Midway through the Sunday morning service at St. Luke's church at which Lesley was preaching her final sermon, Harrogate Police called to say that the three communion sets had been found dumped in a cemetary in another part of the town.

"We don't know what condition the sets are in yet ", commented Lesley, "but we are delighted that they have been found."