A woman who was at the helm of one of Oxford’s biggest shopping centres for 17 years has been ordained as a church minister.

The Rev Wendy White, 56, saw numerous changes in her time as centre manager at Templars Square Shopping Centre, Cowley, before leaving in November 2007 to become a minister in the United Reformed Church.

Ms White, who moved to the Tonge Moor area of Bolton with her partner to continue her ministerial training, was ordained at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton, the home of Bolton Wanderers Football Club, on Saturday, November 1.

She will be a non-stipendiary minister at the New Chapel United Reformed Church in Horwich, and chaplain to the Middlebrook Retail Park.

She said: “The decision to be ordained was quite a long time in the making and I actually started training in 2004. Most of the time when I was working at Templars Square, I was always there in a ‘chaplaincy’ way.

“As well as managing the shopping centre, I was also available if people wanted to talk.

“I do miss Templars Square — not so much the square itself, but the people.”

She was joined at the ordination by many of her friends and colleagues from Templars Square, including one of the security guards she worked with who travelled from Oxford with his wife for the occasion.

The minister from Temple Cowley Reformed Church, the Rev Dick Wolff, preached at the service.

Mr Wolff said: “She has always been very committed to the idea that the church does not exist in a religious box and hopefully she will draw the church into the work she is doing at the retail park.

“She has been acting like a minister for so long that it felt very natural.”

During her time at Templars Square, Ms White was a member of Oxford in Bloom, part of numerous fundraising groups, and at the shopping centre she built up trade, controlled the car parks, helped to modernise the centre, and started up a regular programme of events.

Mr Wolff said: “She is missed certainly by me and by her staff as well.

“She used to offer hospitality round her table on a Friday night with everyone from church, people outside the church, people of other faiths, and heroin addicts, all invited.

“I have tried to keep that going, but I haven’t got what Wendy has to make it happen, and that is what I miss most.”