The new music-loving vicar of Holy Cross Church hit the right chord with the congregation when she took her first service there on Sunday.

The Rev Anne-Marie Watson, a keen singer and piano player, was installed as the Team Vicar of Holy Cross Church, in Balmoral Drive, on Wednesday last week.

She was licensed by the Bishop of Hertford, the Rt Rev Christopher Foster, in a service attended by fellow clergy and community representatives.

Miss Watson, who was ordained four years ago, was chosen for the post after serving as an assistant curate at a church in Norton, in north Hertfordshire.

She said: "I am settling in very well and I had a very good welcome when I held my first Sunday service."

Miss Watson, 31, who grew up in Warwickshire, studied medieval history and French at university, before completing her theology training in Cambridge. She is keen to encourage more people to attend Holy Cross Church, and hopes to take religious education assemblies at schools in the town.

"The church building lies in the centre of a community and we would like to put it at the heart of the community as well," she said.

Holy Cross Church had been without its own vicar for two years, since the departure of the Rev Stephen Purvis.

June 12, 2002 13:00