Not strictly a church
My father finds it almost impossible to say no to a priest when he's asked for something, which has ended up in several awkward situations for him (my absolute favourite being where he was made to drag a cross through town on Good Friday.) So when a nun told him that we were the lucky family who had been selected to take some special statue of Mary to pray around her for a week, my mother gave him a look that said 'don't you dare agree,' and my father ended up saying yes.

We were hardly the most devout family ever, however like good Catholics my mother thought we should at least give it a try, and we gathered round and said a rosary (a set of prayers.) After that for the rest of the week it lapsed, and the statue had its own corner in the dining room safely away from where most of the action in the house went on.

Except of course it doesn't. A game spills into the room, and I go crashing backwards into the Virgin Mary who topples over and snaps her head off. Did I tell my parents who would undoubtedly be angry? Of course not. I rearranged her and balanced her head on top of her broken neck (I had serious form for breaking vases and busts.) The next night was the final one, and seized by a sudden fit of piety my mother insists on a few more prayers, with the inevitable result that my father sneezed viciously and the head came off again to the general shock of all. With the aid of a little bit of super-glue however the head was reattached with only a hairline crack running round the neck.

A week or two later however, there was a tight little note in the parish newsletter to the effect that the statue had been sent away for repair and 'for the time being' would not be circulating, and the nun never really spoke to us again.
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Wed 7 Sep 2011, 8:44, 5 replies)

Priests rely on people not knowing how to say 'no' to them.

( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Wed 7 Sep 2011, 8:58, closed)

Sounds like a win all round, really.
*Hull-bound laughing at the idea of the Virgin Mary being decapitated by a violent sneeze*
( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Wed 7 Sep 2011, 9:25, closed)

I just had a lovely image pop into my head:
A quick installation of a small motor, some batteries and a timer, and you could have had the head start to rotate when the statue had arrived back in the church...
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Wed 7 Sep 2011, 9:37, closed)

You had prior form for breaking busts?
What does your dad do for a living? Proconsul of ancient Rome perhaps?
(leviticus no longer likes the cut of your gib on, Thu 8 Sep 2011, 10:23, closed)

Just the head?
Could have been worse: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNFksWlKBD4
(richardm, Thu 8 Sep 2011, 12:09, closed)