Reverend Claire Wright, who counts writing and being a classical and jazz pianist and vocalist among her former occupations, is the fresh-faced new person behind Bathurst Uniting Church.

She has been in the city a little over a week and says the community has been nothing but welcoming.

“People say not only ‘welcome’, but ‘congratulations on living in Bathurst’,” she said.

Born and schooled in London, Rev Wright lived in Australia during some of her childhood, but always new she would return Down Under.

Her post to Bathurst was her first as a reverend after she was ordained late last year.

And, while the church’s placement committee might have chosen Bathurst for her, it was Rev. Wright who gave it the final ok.

“I came here to meet the people and size-up the town to see if I could be happy here,” she said.

“I really knew I’d need something that had music, country beauty and a community that looks after each other and the moment I visited Bathurst I thought ‘it ticks all the boxes’.

“There’s extraordinary values of hospitality, community building and mutual support in tough times and I thought that’s exactly what the church is about and the church could learn from that.”

It was a long path to the pulpit for Rev. Wright, and when she first thought about becoming a reverend in her 20s very few churches would ordain a female.

Rev Wright’s ordination was in November, 2016, it was exactly 34 years to the day after she was baptised.

“It’s taken every day of those 34 years to get up the courage to be a minister,” she said.

“In one way I’d like to think there’s no difference [than being a male minister] … but in another sense I think it’s an untapped area of the church.”

Rev. Wright said there are many stories that people have not heard, especially those about women in the church.

These days, she said, a church must be very different to how it once was in order to appeal to the community as a whole.

“The church is not just for people who come to church on a Sunday, it’s for the whole community,” she said.

“We need to surprise people. The church is not boring, not focused on those who come on a Sunday, not stuck in the 50s.”

Last Sunday’s service in Bathurst Uniting Church was her first as an official reverend.

This Sunday she will conduct her first service at the Perthville Uniting Church, with the wider community invited to attend.