A RICH mix of Maori songs and chants with traditional choral music welcomed in the new Bishop of Ripon, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley.

Priests from the Anglican Church in New Zealand, who had made the 11,000-mile journey to take part in the ceremony, led Dr Hartley into Ripon Cathedral going head-to-head, and nose-to-nose, with their British counterparts in traditional Maori style.

The service was conducted by Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, Bishop of Leeds, Nick Baines and Dean of Ripon, John Dobson.

The procession was headed by Maori priests, Canon Christopher Douglas-Huriwai and the Revd Ngira Simmonds, who also brought a word of warning to muted laughter from the assembled.

He said: “Please look after Helen-Ann.

“If not, we will come and bring her back.”

Dr Hartley was the first female priest ordained in the Church of England to be made Bishop of Waikato in New Zealand in 2014.

She had moved out there in 2010 with her husband Myles, a musician and church organist.

In her first sermon as Bishop of Ripon she spoke of her “deep gratitude” to all, but especially to those who had travelled from across the world to support her.

She said: “It is a measure of the depth of connection and bonds of affection across the Anglican communion that you are here today, and I am moved beyond words.”

Dr Hartley is one of five area bishops within the recently-formed Leeds diocese.

She said that the diocese was building on a “rich heritage of Christian mission and witness”.

She added: “In our national life, debates over Brexit, regional devolution, and an alarming drive to polarisation continue to cause division and fear. “But our parishes and people are uniquely placed to participate in conversations not just about who we are, but whose we are.”

Children from St Aidan’s High School, Harrogate, presented the bishop with gifts symbolising aspects of her future ministry; a young olive tree for education, a photo of the Yorkshire countryside accompanied by a warning about climate change and economic challenges, a ceramic poppy for the armed forces - and a Yorkshire tea towel as a reminder to lay people to “use whatever you have to serve others.”

Born in Edinburgh in 1973 Bishop Hartley was raised in the North of England.

She was ordained in Oxford and held curacies in Oxfordshire before being appointed director of biblical studies at Ripon Theological College, Cuddesdon.

She is the fourth generation of her family to be ordained and succeeds James Bell who retired as Bishop of Ripon last year.