THE Bishop of Crediton, the Rt Rev Moira Astin, has begun her Living Stones tour of Devon by visiting the seaside parishes of Shaldon and Teignmouth, the Teign Valley village of Dunsford and the ancient city churches of St Michael’s and All Angels and St Sidwella’s in Exeter.

Her tour is taking place over a series of days throughout the summer and will cover North, East and parts of South Devon, which are the areas of the diocese she covers.

It includes visiting churches, schools, community projects and ancient stone crosses and holy wells.

Bishop Moira said: “The tour has two aims – to meet people in the area of Devon I look after and to visit places where we can touch history and know that God has been at work there forever and is still at work today.

“I have a background in church history and what’s special to me is the deep rootedness of Christianity in England.

“[So far] I have seen many things which have shown the ancient holy roots of Devon and also I’ve met some wonderful people who through running libraries, doing eco-church, providing food in the porch, running children’s choirs etc – are serving the people of Devon with joy, as well as expressing their faith and deep spirituality.”

Bishop Moira said she felt her role was to support people spiritually, but also to help hold communities together. She studied geology at university and is writing a book about early Christianity in Britain.

She has based her tour on the Bible verse 1 Peter 2:4-5, “Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”.