ONE of the first women to be ordained as a priest in the Ripon and Leeds diocese is to be commissioned as an area dean next week.

The vicar of Aysgarth, the Reverend Sue Whitehouse, will be commissioned by the Bishop of Knaresborough, the Right Reverend Frank Weston, during an open meeting of the Wensley Deanery Synod at St Andrew's Church, Aysgarth, on Monday, at 7pm.

Rev Whitehouse, 54, takes over responsibility for 24 parishes, stretching from Aysgarth in the west, to Leeming and Kirklington in the east.

She succeeds the Reverend Clive Mansell, who became Archdeacon of Tonbridge last year.

She said: "It is a great privilege and responsibility to be asked to take on this role of leadership for the deanery.

"I am looking forward to working with my colleagues - both ordained and lay - as we seek to serve the communities of this area as effectively as possible."

Although the only woman area dean at present, Miss Whitehouse, who was ordained in 1994, is the second woman appointed to the position.

The Reverend Wendy Wilby became area dean of Harrogate in 2000 and moved to the diocese of Wakefield in 2001.