The Oxfordshire clergyman who admitted lying on oath in court has received a message of support from former Cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken, who was jailed for perjury.

The Rev Christopher Walker was sentenced to 180 hours' community service on Friday after the judge said he saw no point in putting him behind bars.

He was absent from the pulpit yesterday as he waits for his future in the Church of England to be decided by the Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev Richard Harries.

Mr Aitken, who spoke to the Oxford Mail and sister paper the Oxford Times yesterday to promote Porridge and Passion, the second part of his autobiography, urged the Church to forgive Mr Walker for his crime.

Mr Aitken said: "I've been following the case and my heart went out to him.

"In my view he has not had a lenient sentence.

"There have been occasions when people have lied in court and have received either no sentence or just a reprimand.

"This was a motiveless crime -- he should not have done it and it was a mistake -- but he was trying to help someone out.

"Then he realised he had done wrong and pleaded guilty -- the judge got it right to give him a non-custodial sentence. Forgiveness is at the heart of the Christian gospel and I hope church leaders find it in their hearts to forgive him."

Mr Walker, 53, who is in charge of four churches in the Moretons and Astons near Didcot, has not been suspended by the Church but has been absent from services since pleading guilty to perjury on May 27.

He admitted lying while giving evidence at the trial of Roger Barker, the owner of R&H Barker Undertakers, of Didcot and Wantage. During the trial, the rector denied he had been present while unidentified ashes had been scattered at a church in Aston Tirrold.

Barker, who was convicted of knowingly giving the wrong ashes to a young man's grieving parents, now has grounds for an appeal.

Mr Aitken, 62, was jailed for 18 months in June 1999 after pleading guilty to perjury and perverting the course of justice.

He served seven months behind bars following a libel battle against The Guardian, which accused him of accepting bribes from Saudi businessmen in connection with arms sales, something he has always denied.

Mr Aitken, an Oxford graduate, was jailed after admitting lying under oath about the true details of his stay at the Ritz Hotel in Paris.

In September 2000, he returned to Oxford to read theology for two years at Wycliffe Hall and then wrote two books entitled Psalms For People Under Pressure and Prayers For People Under Pressure.

He has given hundreds of evangelistic talks across the country and is about to embark on a tour of the United States.

The tour will coincide with the publication of another book, Charles W. Colson, A Life Redeemed, which is a biography of one of President Richard Nixon's right-hand men at the time of the Watergate scandal.

Mr Colson is now one of America's best-known Christian voices.