Nine hours spent incarcerated in a Glasgow police cell was among the more unusual highlights in the career of a retiring clergyman.

The Rev David Platt with wife Gill

The Rev David Platt, who is retiring as assistant priest at St Andrew's, East Hagbourne, near Didcot, was co-chairman of Christian CND for sixteen years, and counts his brief imprisonment as a high point of his ministry.

Mr Platt, pictured with his wife Gill outside the church, was among 30 clergy and other protesters arrested for obstruction during a blockade of the Trident nuclear submarine base at Faslane in Scotland.

Now church liaison officer for Christian CND and a member of Abingdon Peace Group he said it was during sabbatical leave in 1986 when he visited an ecumenical centre in France and the World Council of Churches in Geneva that he really became conscious of "a calling to be an activist against war, and the use of nuclear weapons".

Since 1996, he has shared responsibility for the united benefice of Blewbury, East and East Hagbourne.

A farewell service will be held at St Andrew's on Sunday, May 11, at 10.30am followed by a reception at the village school.