A witches' coven is claiming religious persecution after they were banned from using a social centre for a Halloween gathering.

The Crystal Cauldron group had booked Our Lady's Social Club in Stockport for the group's annual Witches Ball. But when high priestess Sandra Davis went to pay for the booking she was told it had been blocked by the the Roman Catholic church.

Mrs Davis, 61, had hoped to attract up to 150 people to the social evening offering a buffet dinner and music from an Abba tribute band. But she was told by the manager that the Diocese of Shrewsbury, which owns the centre, had refused permission for the group to use it.

"It makes you think that there is still a little bit of that attitude from the past of the Catholics wanting to burn witches," she said. "I thought we had made progress, that we could accept other people's religious paths." Mrs Davis, who has 11 grandchildren, gave up her former job in a forklift truck company to set up the Crystal Cauldron, where she is known as Amethyst Selmeselene.

The Reverend John Joyce, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic diocese of Shrewsbury, which owns the centre, said that it was out of the question for a pagan group to use its facilities.  "Parish centres under our auspices let their premises on the understanding users and their organisations are compatible with the ethos and teachings of the Catholic church," he said.

Are they sure it wasn't the Abba tribute band that got them banned?

To be honest they didn't help themselves...

The original was here