POPPY Hughes has been in charge of Tetbury and its five surrounding parishes for 18 months, in that time she’s watched old worshippers return, the congregation grow and the Sunday School flourish.

A few years ago Poppy was a producer for Radio 4, helping put together shows such as You and Yours, Any Questions, and Any Answers; then, at church one day, she had a call from God.

While working in Peckham as a curate she saw that Tetbury’s old priest, John Wright, was leaving after a decade of service.

“They said come to the countryside and you will find ways of doing good,” Poppy said. “And when I came to visit I lost my heart to Tetbury.”

The weekly congregation at St Mary’s has grown since Poppy arrived, up around 20% on last year.

A lot of them, Poppy believes, are new worshippers, drawn in by the promise of a close community.

She said: “I think we now have a bit more variety, we have got more chances for people to learn about their faith, it means people can get much more engaged.

“It’s the feeling that there is more in the community to get involved with.”

Children have also been encouraged back by the revival of the Sunday group, “Little Fishes”, which is run by volunteers during the main service.

This is a different story to the rest of the country where Church of England congregation have halved since the 60s and, according to the 2011, there are now 4.1million, or 10%, less Christians in the country than 10 years ago.

There were 30 weddings in Poppy’s parishes last year, and around 50 funerals.

Poppy said that the most exciting wedding she presided over was one in which the bride organised a gospel choir to surprise her husband-to-be at the altar.

However, it is the traditional wedding that she prefers.

She said: “It’s one of my favourite parts of the job and it really brings you closer to the community. I remember a busy few weeks when I buried a woman’s mother and then married her brother.”

Recently, the different parishes have been involving themselves more and more in the community, with one church putting on film nights and another putting on pub nights.

When I enquired into the Biblical doctrine of pub nights she laughed: “Oh, I think Jesus liked to party. At one point in the Bible he produces a lot of wine, people have counted and it’s something like a thousand bottles.”

The church is now focusing on five areas: getting young people into the church, communicating well within the church, growing the number of church disciples, providing pastoral care in the community and utilising their churches as community centres.