Daniel Watts was conducting sermon at St Mark's Church, Harrogate
A 'page 3 style' image flashed up on the screen of the power point sermon
Church has apologised for the technical glitch, which happened on Sunday
Vicar Daniel Watts was conducting a sermon via power point when the 'page three style' image flashed up on the screen
A church has been forced to apologise after a vicar accidentally flashed an image of a naked woman to the congregation during a Power Point sermon.
Vicar Daniel Watts was conducting the presentation at St Mark's Church, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, on Sunday evening when the 'page three style' image flashed up on the screen.
It was said the image caused panic in the room and Mr Watts, a married father of two, hurriedly tried to remove it from view.
An anonymous parishioner described the image as 'pornographic'.
Now St Marks's has said sorry for the mistake, which happened in the middle of the 'In The Mix Sunday Session' which from 5pm to 6pm, was billed as a 'cafe style teaching and discussion for adults and children.'
St Mark's claims the 'inappropriate' image was shown during a Power Point presentation to 50 adult members at the weekend and put it down to a 'technical glitch'.
The presentation was being delivered in a meeting room by overall group leader, Mr Watts, as part of a separate teaching section .
The self-proclaimed 'Only Fool and Horses' fanatic who enjoys 'sampling local ale' - is associate minister for young people at St Mark's.
The church said no children were present, and few people had noticed the error.
A statement read: 'A separate teaching section was being held for about 50 adult members of the 5 o'clock service at St Mark's church last Sunday in a meeting room and a Power Point presentation was shown.
'It appears that a technical glitch accidentally caused an inappropriate image from the internet to appear momentarily on the screen, of a 'Page 3' type.
'This was clearly not intended but was so fleeting it was not spotted by the leader of the teaching session and very few people seem to be have been aware of it.
'No-one made any comment or complaint at the time or after the service, but if anyone was offended we of course would like to apologise for this unfortunate occurrence.'
But an anonymous and concerned parishioner present at the meeting claiming the appearance of the image caused 'panic' in the room.
They said: 'The vicar doing the service was doing an overhead projection for part of his service.
'He must have been using an iPad or something similar. One of the icons showed a pornographic picture.
'It appeared to show a naked lady. A lot of people noticed it and were quite shocked.
'There was a bit of panic, he was clearly trying to get it down. It was just so inappropriate, there were young children about.'
The church website explains Rev Watts was born in Dorking, Surrey, and grew up in a village near Gatwick.
After working as a church-based Youth and Children's worker for 10 years in Surrey and Kent, he spent two years at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, before he was ordained in 2006.
He lives with wife Julia and their two children.
He was today unavailable for comment.
Mr Watts, who is not the vicar of St Mark's but the associate minister for young people, had taken the adults out of the church and into a separate annexe in the building, leaving the children in the church proper.
Canon John Carter, spokesman for the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds, explained that normally the children leave the church and go into the annex, but once a month this is reversed.
Canon Carter said: 'The Sunday School style set up had been swapped around. So there were no children in the room when the power point talk was taking place.'
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