The Rev Teresa Davies, 37, was a member of the Daventry Team Ministry with responsibility for the Welton parish and working in schools across the benefice. She was also a governor at Welton Primary School.

Her reputation as an unconventional clergyman started when she arrived in Daventry riding a motorcycle in June 2006, and rumours were soon circulating in the congregation about her having an ‘open marriage’.

On Tuesday a Church of England disciplinary tribunal upheld complaints that Mrs Davies and her husband Mick had an open relationship and she took part in church services while drunk.

After a Christmas lunch in December 2006, Oxford-educated Mrs Davies told fellow team members, the Rev Canon Owen Page and the Rev Peter Davis, that she and her husband had spent holidays without their two children in an area of France known for the ‘casual exchange of sexual partners’.

The tribunal was told that she said to them “she and her husband sought sexual gratification this way, and felt no guilt because both partners had agreed to taking part.”

Speaking to the Rev Davis later that day she remarked: “I think I have said too much.” He replied: “I think you have.”

She also admitted an entry on a swingers’ website for ‘Tess and Mick, Daventry’ related to her.

The tribunal also heard that in September, November and December 2006 Mrs Davies arrived for church services while drunk or hungover.

At at advent service “she was unsteady on her feet, sitting in the congregation, at times with her head in her hands, clearly unwell (with a hangover as she admitted)”.

The tribunal concluded: “Bearing in mind her admission that she and her husband visited the particular resort in the summer months without their children and the evidence of the personal website entries reflecting the claims, the tribunal has determined that her behaviour was scandalous.”

“The tribunal has come to the conclusion that the respondent’s conduct was unbecoming or inappropriate on both counts.”

Mrs Davies was given a leave of absence in March 2007 and then formally suspended in May that year.

She resigned from her post in August this year and left her church house in Daventry at the same time. She now lives in Birmingham and is training to be a teacher.

A spokesman for the Peterborough Diocese said: “It is always a matter of regret when any clergy fail to set an example of Christian behaviour in word and deed.