The Priest of the Parish is a party game for 50-150 people and one chair for each person. The chairs are arranged in rows of equal numbers (for example, ten rows of five), half of them facing the other. Each row of chairs is given a number from one to ten. The players get into teams of five and each team sits in one of the ten rows.

One person, who is running the game (who is called the Gossiper) says: "The priest of the parish has lost his considering cap. Some say this, and some say that, but I say it was team number X." That team stands up all at once and says (in unison), "Who me sir?" They team and the Gossiper have a conversation, which runs like this:

Gossiper: "The priest of the parish has lost his considering cap. Some say this, and some say that, but I say it was team number X." Team X: "Who me sir?" G: "Yes, you sir." X: "Couldn't be, sir!" G: "Then who, sir?" X: "Team number Y, sir!"

At this point, all of team Y stands up and says "Who me sir?" and so on. This continues until one of the following happens: A team doesn't stand up together, a team speaks out of unison or the wrong team stands up. When one of these happens, the team that made the mistake goes to the bottom row of chairs (in our example, row 10), and all of the teams below them move up. The whole process starts again with the Gossiper talking to a team.

The aim is to be Team 1 at the end of the game. The end of the game is when the Gossiper can't be bothered continuing any further.

Party games