NEW Zealand Maori ceremonies will help to welcome the new Area Bishop of Ripon to the region.
A vibrant service of welcome and licensing for Dr Helen-Ann Hartley is planned to take place at Ripon Cathedral on February 4.
Maori chants, songs, speeches and ceremonial actions including the touching of foreheads and noses will open the service at 3.30pm.
Bishop Helen-Ann, who was Anglican bishop of Waitato in New Zealand, will be ceremonially brought into the cathedral by representatives of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.
Bishop Helen-Ann was brought up in the North-East of England and after a curacy in the Oxford diocese, was appointed as the Director of Biblical Studies at Ripon College Cuddesdon.
She moved to New Zealand in 2010 with her husband Myles who is a musician and church organist, and was appointed as Bishop of Waitato in 2014.
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