As a leading campaigner against South Africa's brutal apartheid regime, the Reverend Brian Brown can claim an uninvited first.

Mr Brown was the country's first churchman to become a banned' person, forbidding him from travelling, writing or speaking publicly.

The 67-year-old, who has left retirement in Birmingham to become temporary minister of Baildon Methodist Circuit, eventually chose exile over unacceptable limits on his freedom.

"I simply did not believe that South Africa would move away from apartheid without resorting to a bloody conflict," he said.

"So as a person committed to non-violence I was part of a movement calling for economic sanctions against South Africa.

"It is widely accepted that the sanctions were the fundamental reason South Africa moved away from apartheid to the democratic arena."

"I was also much involved in presenting the image of leaders like Nelson Mandela and Tambo Mbeki as people of liberal persuasion rather than as communists and terrorists, which was their image within government."

It was too much for the South African government, which in 1977, put him on their list of banned persons.

Mr Brown said: "The banning meant I could not, in any circumstances, be with more than one other person. It meant my wife and I could never have a guest. We could be together as a family unit, but not with others."

Mr Brown refused to stop leading church services, eventually landing him in hot water with the authorities.

He explained: "I was prosecuted for preaching and that was unprecedented. I had not said something like let's assassinate the president'.

"The charges were eventually dropped. Can you imagine how it would have looked with someone in court for preaching a Christian message in a predominantly Christian country?"

Finally, at a meeting with colleagues it was agreed leaving the country was the best way of furthering the anti-apartheid cause.

So Mr and Mrs Brown took their three children - Sharon, David and Sean - and found exile as minister in Denby Dale, near Huddersfield.

The family was destitute and it was only through the skills of Marjorie Brigham, the wife of Superintendent Minister the Reverend George Brigham, that their house was furnished.

And Mrs Brigham has again been a leading light in co-ordinating donations of furniture for the Browns' Baildon home.

Much of Mr Brown's British ministry saw him work as Africa secretary of the British Council of Churches, building missionary partnerships with 22 countries in Africa.

Mr Brown replaces former Baildon minister the Rev Graham Smith, who moved to Wolverhampton last month.

He will share the Circuit with Methodist Bishop - and fellow South African - George Irvine, who will be minister during Lent and Easter.

e-mail: jonathan.walton@bradford.newsquest.co.uk