IT started in a front room three years ago, when the Revd Paul Niemiec, as Pioneer Minister, with his wife, Helen, moved on to a new housing estate on the outskirts of Leighton Buzzard in St Albans diocese. The two of them opened the ground floor of their home and, with much prayer, began to reach out to the local community.

People began to come - soon too many for the single room; and so, having become a Messy Church, they moved to the Community House near by. A year ago, a fire and a significant growth in numbers meant that it was time to move. The local Greenleas School had just been completed, and was immediately booked for Sunday mornings; and so the Church of the Good Shepherd was born.

More than 70 people came on the first morning, and even more the following week. They are mostly young families, though the ages range from newborn to 80-plus. The Bishop of Bedford, the Rt Revd Richard Atkinson, came to help a congregation of 94 to celebrate the church's first birthday with a service of holy communion, followed by a party (above) with a magnificent birthday cake.