A BEN Rhydding vicar had his congregation rolling in the aisles with laughter at the weekend when he was caught out by an April Fool's Day joke.

The Rev Brian Gregory, of St John's Church, didn't realise anything was amiss when he couldn't find a dog collar to wear for his 8am Sunday morning service.

Unfazed, he quickly made one out of paper and performed the service as normal.

"For the next service at 10am I set about making a better job of it and cut out quite a decent one from an ice-cream container lid - an old vicar's trick," he said.

But as he stood at the front of the church and surveyed his flock he noticed several people, including his wife, Corinne, were wearing white bands around their necks.

"Then I noticed all the musicians and singers were wearing white bands," he laughed. "Then I realised that 110 adult members of the congregation and 30 children were all wearing them. I remembered it was April 1 and it dawned on me why my own collars had earlier gone missing."

Despite his surprise, Mr Gregory said the cheeky trick actually improved his performance at the pulpit.

"It was bizarre - surreal - seeing all those collared people," he said. "I wished I had a camera with me. We were all roaring with laughter. I was caught good and proper and the whole feeling in the church was of a shared humour and a great deal of love."