Newly-appointed team vicar Fr Sam Rossiter-Peters was asked about the Christian faith by bakery worker Catherine after he went into Greggs for a sandwich following his first Sunday services as a Team Vicar.

On his second visit just before Christmas, Catherine asked him about the possibility of being baptised.

“She said ‘It is amazing you have come in because I want to ask you whether I can be baptised.

“I have a close friend who was recently baptised and she sent me the video and it looked like a really moving experience.’ “

Since their conversation, Catherine has joined a regular weekday morning Eucharist service at St John the Baptist Church, Barnet, north London, where Fr Sam is Team Vicar and was baptised there this month.

Fr Sam said: “Catherine told me that she had felt for a long while that God was calling her – at the moment that she was thinking about all this, I happened to come into her shop – wearing my dog collar – and this felt like a sign to her.

“Catherine is an inspirational person and she has had a huge impact on our morning Eucharist community. I was only licensed as Team Vicar at the church in November. Her story has really inspired my faith.”