The minister of Burley-in-Wharfedale Methodist Church has bid a fond farewell to his congregation of the last eight years.

Rev Philip MacDonald was presented with parting gifts and a lunch after concluding his final service for the church at its temporary home in Burley Oaks School on Sunday.

During his time in the village Rev MacDonald has overseen the £600,000-plus redevelopment of the church building and helped co-ordinate fund-raising efforts to pay for it.

He was also in charge of the Methodist churches in Norwood and Timble, in the Washburn Valley.

Speaking ahead of his last service in Burley, he said: "People always have very mixed feelings on these occasions. On the one hand I'm looking forward to the challenge of a new beginning but it is always hard to leave people behind.

"We have been here eight years and built up a lot of relationships and become a part of the local community, so my last service will be quite emotional."

Married to Ellen and with two children, Robert, nine, and Katie, four, Rev MacDonald was actually due to finish after five years but chose to extend his contract for three years.

That decision was fuelled by the 45-year-old's desire to see the church's major refurbishment programme, which will see it re-open as a multi-purpose community building, completed.

The project took longer than anticipated, however, as he acknowledged.

"I am sorry that as it has turned out I'm not going to be around to see it up and running," he said.

"But they have very kindly invited me back for the official opening in October so I will see it, and I will make sure I hear about how it is going.

"This is the first real move we'll be making as a family, with the children being old enough to know what's going on, so it is a big move."

Rev MacDonald's new role will be as the Methodist Circuit Superintendent at Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire.

The Burley church, meanwhile, is blaming a nation-wide shortage for its failure to find a replacement full-time minister for the coming year.

Instead, the work will be shared out between three people - the Reverend Hamer Savage, a retired minister from Cookridge, Deacon Gwyneth Gostling, of Yeadon, and the Reverend Leslie Wyatt, a retired minister from Burley.