After Retirement
Following his retirement, Ball continued pastoral service and accepted invitations to give prayers, blessings, comments and leadership at dedications, funerals, lectures and worship services. He is noted for short, pithy sermons marked by humility and humour. The Vicar of Whalley reflects this in a blog recollection:
During the service there was lots of noise from younger children. Perhaps that put some people off, but does that matter from time to time? I’m sure God loves their inarticulate cries of delight, and sympathizes with their wails of frustration... During the service I told the story of Bishop Peter Ball of Gloucester. When a child began to cry during his sermon at a Parish visit, the mother hurried to take it out. “Stay where you are, my dear!” cried the Bishop. “I am delighted that someone is awake and listening.”
Ball's twin brother, Michael, was the suffragan Bishop of Jarrow and then Bishop of Truro. He is also retired and the two brothers live together in Somerset.
In May 2012 it was reported that the Church of England had carried out a safeguarding review of Ball and passed the review and historic files to the Sussex police. The police stated "The reports and files relate to matters more than 20 years ago and we will review the contents in order to establish whether any police investigation of possible criminal offences would be merited. This review is likely to take several weeks. We are not prepared to expand on this statement at this time.”
On 13 November 2012, news services reported that Ball was arrested for police questioning at his home near Langport, Somerset, following allegations of child sexual abuse in the Diocese of Chichester during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Sussex police said Ball was released the same day on medical advice. The police said they intended to interview Ball at a later date. The police statement noted that the offences leading to Ball's being sought for questioning "were allegedly committed against eight boys and young men, all of whom were at time in their late teens or early twenties, except one who was 12."
Read more about this topic: Peter Ball (bishop)
Famous quotes containing the word retirement:
“He who comes into Assemblies only to gratifie his Curiosity, and not to make a Figure, enjoys the Pleasures of Retirement in a[n] ...exquisite Degree.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)
“Adultery itself in its principle is many times nothing but a curious inquisition after, and envy of another man’s enclosed pleasures: and there have been many who refused fairer objects that they might ravish an enclosed woman from her retirement and single possessor.”
—Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667)