St Felix RC Church welcomed a special guest who agreed to visit and bless eight new windows in the nave.

Bishop Peter Collins, senior cleric in the East Anglian diocese, said mass at the Felixstowe church on Sunday, October 29, during his first visit to the parish since his appointment.

He blessed the large windows that had replaced windows first put up in 1912 which had become unstable.

Parishioners and supporters rallied round when parish priest Canon John Barnes made an appeal for funding earlier in the year. They raised more than £66,000 within a few months.

The work was undertaken by specialists Devlin Plummer, of Great Moulton, Norfolk.

Canon Barnes said: "Most of the donors were present at the mass together with two of the young craftsmen who had installed the windows.

"After mass the bishop attended a parish lunch in the crowded church hall, with food from the various nationalities represented in the community. He cut a special cake which had been made for the occasion and met many of the parishioners.

"I think the whole occasion went very well."