CHIDDINGFOLD has celebrated the arrival of the new rector of St Mary’s Church.

Reverend Rachel Greene hails from Nashville, Tennessee, but comes from Cambridge, where she completed a PhD in Divinity at Peterhouse College and was active in organisations that support refugees and displaced people in Northern France.

Before that, Rachel was chaplain at Trinity College, Cambridge, assistant priest at St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, and assistant curate in a multi-church benefice in Thomas Hardy’s ‘Vale of the Little Dairies’ in Dorset.

“I am honoured to be the next rector of this historic parish church and very much looking forward to serving the local community,” she said. “I have been overwhelmed by the warmth of welcome I received when I was ‘installed, instituted and inducted’. It was a wonderful and moving celebration, and I am absolutely delighted to be here.

“St Mary’s is in good heart, with many exciting things organised for the new year, and I am looking forward to getting to know everyone.”

The Rt Rev Dr Jo Bailey, Bishop of Dorking, joined The Ven Paul Davies, Archdeacon of Surrey, at the evening service in St Mary’s Church on January 15.