Clowning around for Christ

As a child, Roly Bain would entertain family and friends, and they would laugh with delight every time he declared, ‘When I grow up I want to be a clown’. But he became a vicar in the Church of England instead – though he didn’t forget his first ambition. He served faithfully as a parish priest in London but never lost his love of tomfoolery, practical jokes or juggling. At every opportunity, the respectable vicar and father of two children would swap his ecclesiastical robes for his clown’s outfit before skilfully applying his make up. By 1982 he discovered there were other closet clowns who he describes as ‘network of loose nits’ committed to clowning around sitting among the congregations of churches and together they became known as the ‘Holy Fools’. Roly eventually plucked up the courage to swap his ‘Holy Robes’ for his clown’s cloak to deliver his sermons of God’s love through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus — while walking a tightrope. While some in the pews raised their eye brows in disbelief, others giggled with delight and heard the gospel message in a way that they had never heard before.

News of the ‘Fool for Christ’ spread rapidly and soon so many invitations to preach in cathedrals, churches, schools, prisons and Christian conferences came in that, in 1990, with the blessing of his Bishop, he stepped down from the pulpit to take up the ministry of a full-time evangelist, albeit a strange looking one. Taking a year out to perfect his slapstick performance Roly enrolled at the ‘Fool Time Circus School’ in Bristol, mastering the art of tightrope rope walking and balancing on a ball. His commitment to clowning about and sharing the love of God in the most surprising ways never fails to provoke a profound response from his hysterical congregations of all ages. His intercessory prayers with bubbles is often talked about long after he takes off his make up and heads home. Taking to the pulpit wearing his over-sized clerical collar, Roly begins his service with the words, ‘Let us play’.

His clowning around for Christ has won him a string of awards including the 1994 ‘Clown of the Year’ and ‘International Clown of the Year’ in 1999. One of the most encouraging letters Roly has ever received came from a Chaplain of a women’s prison in the UK who wrote, ‘Many of the women have had horrendous lives and, on Sunday, they were given back part of their childhood that many of them had snatched cruelly away from them. Your message of God’s love for them and His delight in us all was just what we needed to hear.’ Today Roly’s ministry is international, performing and preaching across Europe, in Canada, the US and Australia supported by the Faith and Foolishness Trust with the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, as a patron who takes Roly’s ministry very seriously.