HEALTH worker and Sunday School teacher Christine Martin has taken her beliefs one step further - by qualifying as a lay preacher.

Christine, of Northallerton, is secretary of the North-East Sector Community Mental Health Team and has also been a Sunday School teacher for 30 years.

And following four-and-a-half-years of study she can now take services within both the Methodist and Anglican Church.

"I studied a course called Faith and Worship which consisted of 17 modules," said Christine.

"This gave me an opportunity to study the Bible in more depth, both objectively and subjectively, studying the motivations and spirituality of the people, the use of language and how it relates to our lives today.

"We learnt the do's and don'ts of taking a service, things such as the type and order of prayers, and studied the language and origin of hymns."

Now that she is accredited, Christine can be asked to preach anywhere within a geographical area that covers Dishforth in the south to Appleton Wiske in the north.