BROADWAY minister Ruth Mitchell is looking forward to fresh challenges and closer family ties in her new posting.

Ruth, who has headed Broadway's United Reformed Church for the past 10 years, will leave the parish in May. The minister is set to take up a new role, with her husband Jim, at a church in Grays, Essex - her home county, and where most of her family still lives.

Ruth said: "There comes a point in your ministry when you need fresh challenges and changes, and the time is right. The Lord has called me to move on and that has been made clear by the fact that I have 100 per cent backing from the church I'm going to.

"I would have gone wherever the Lord called me, but being closer to my family is certainly an added benefit.

"It's been a good time of development for me in Broadway and hopefully for the church as a whole. We've made a lot of friends and had a lot of involvement with the village - we'll particularly miss the work with the young people."

A new minister is yet to be appointed for the Broadway church.