HISTORY was made at the end of last month when the congregations of The Bourne and Tilford Parishes came together at St Thomas-on-The Bourne to welcome the Bishop of Dorking, the Rt Rev Dr Jo Bailey Wells, on her first visit to the Benefice.

Most of the 350 people assembled had never seen a woman bishop before, as they are a relatively new development in the story of the Church of England, and Bishop Jo did not disappoint.

Led into the church by the girls’ and men’s choirs, the churchwardens, and the clergy, she was a commanding but smiling presence whose deep voice lifted everyone’s spirits in our long wait for a new vicar.

She preached a stimulating sermon which engaged even her younger listeners by a careful comparison of the Emmaus story with a short story by Roald Dahl which she summarised grippingly.

The service was beautifully sung to a Haydn mass-setting with motets by Vaughan Williams, Mawby and Byrd, the junior church children proudly showed the Bishop ‘suitcases’ they had made to take on their life-journey, and altogether the morning was described as a most joyful occasion.