Ananova:

A vicar who underwent a sex change operation has returned to a warm welcome from her congregation.

Around 100 parishioners attended a service at St Philips Church in Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts, led by the Reverend Carol Stone, who had previously addressed them as Peter.

Although one woman had to be escorted from the service after criticising Ms Stone's transformation, the rest of the congregation gave the minister a standing ovation.

During the service, Ms Stone, 46, said she was delighted by the support she had received but also dedicated prayers to those who refused to accept her change.

Dressed in purple robes and sporting a pair of gold ear-rings, Ms Stone - thought to be the first Church of England vicar to undergo a sex change operation - she told the congregation: "This sermon hasn't been just three months in the making if the truth be told, I've been waiting to write it for the best part of 46 years - never dreaming one day I might.

"After almost 23 years of preaching I felt like a young curate again preparing for one's first sermon."

The vicar, who has been married twice and has a daughter, likened her return to a scene from the tales of the children's character Pooh bear where Pooh had gathered with his friends on a bridge gazing at the river and told them that everyone was all right apart from him - only to be reassured by Christopher Robin.

Ms Stone said: "If Pooh were here today I'd like to think he would say the same about me - that I too was all right, as indeed you are."

A single police officer attended the service as a precautionary measure but the elderly woman who expressed her opposition to Ms Stone was calmly escorted out by church members.