EXTRA chairs had to be brought on to the gallery at Holgate Methodist Church to accommodate the congregation when the York South Circuit held a special service to welcome a new minister.

Penny Worth who was born in Birmingham and worked as a doctor in the Leeds and Wakefield areas for nine years, including five years as a GP, moved to York with her doctor husband, David, in 1988, and started to attend the Methodist Church at Poppleton.

She had stopped practising medicine when the first of her two children was born 12 years ago.

One day, when she was praying about what to do with her life, the idea came into her mind of becoming a minister.

She said: "It seemed such an outrageous, ridiculous idea I felt that it must have come from God.

"I felt I was the most unmininsterial person I knew - and yet I felt God was kicking me hard to do this." She then trained to be a local preacher, candidated for the ministry and spent three years training to be a minister.

She was formally welcomed to the circuit in a service conducted by the superintendent minister, the Rev Geoffrey Pratt, and at which another circuit minister, the Rev Phil Hoar, preached.

The service was held at Holgate where Penny will be the part-time Minister in Local Appointment - a term which describes a minister who is not paid a normal stipend and who does not have to move on every few years or so.

Her appointment releases the Rev Colin Smith for other duties within the circuit and particularly in the Acomb area.

Updated: 11:24 Tuesday, September 04, 2001