WALTHAM Abbey Church was packed for the formal ceremony to install its new rector.
Rev Peter Smith has been instituted as the team rector of the Waltham Holy Cross Ministry by the Bishop of Barking the Rt Rev David Hawkins and his predecessor Canon Martin Webster who is now Archdeacon of Harlow.
Church and community came together for the service which was attended by Waltham Abbey mayor Ricki Gadsby, senior pastor of the Lea Valley Church Geoff Ace and Hillhouse Church of England school headteacher Helen Springett among others.
Mr Smith said: “I was attracted to Waltham Abbey by the exciting diversity of the benefice, by the history of worship at the Abbey over 950 years and by the fact that so much good work is already going on here.
“I hope to develop the good work that is already being done in the benefice, to expand the church’s work with young people and to link in to the centuries of worship in this holy place, reawakening the Abbey’s tradition as a place of pilgrimage”.
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