HUNDREDS of people gathered in Waltham Abbey to see the first Catholic church dedication there for hundreds of years.
The bishop of Brentwood, the Rt Rev Thomas McMahon, conducted the consecration ceremony on Sunday at St Thomas More and St Edward church on the corner of Farm Hill Road and Rochford Avenue.
People from churches all over the town attended and the parish administrator Terri Gilli said it was a “beautiful” occasion.
“The weather was lovely and we had people in the church, the marquee outside and in the car park," she added. "There was beautiful music from the singing group.”
Although there was a Catholic church in Monkswood Avenue until the congregation moved two years ago, the ceremony is thought to be the first of its kind since the Abbey Church was first built, hundreds of years ago.
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