Helping to tackle some of the world's most crucial issues is top of the list of priorities for a leading Ryedale Methodist who has been elected to the world presidency of an influential Christian organisation.

Rosemary Wass, who held the highest lay office in the Methodist Church in 1989 when she became vice-president of the Methodist Conference, has now been elected president of the World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women, which has some six million members in the Methodist and related churches.

Rosemary, who, with her husband Howard, is well-known as a lay preacher in the Ryedale Methodist circuit, will be travelling thousands of miles during her five-year presidency, and has only recently returned from Japan, where she was involved in talks on stopping the commercial exploitation of children on a worldwide basis.

The growing concern for the welfare of all children is one of the most important problems she and officials of the federation will be tackling worldwide, along with racism, the spread of HIV/AIDS and violence against women.

"I shall be encouraging women in the federation's nine world regions to become more involved in helping to reolve these issues," said Rosemary, who lives at Newfields Farm, Fadmoor, where she and her husband run a 193-acre organic farm.

Born in Kirkbymoorside, Rosemary attended Lady Lumley's School, Pickering, before training and qualifying as a radiographer.

From the small village chapel of Gillamoor, which she and Howard have attended for some 30-plus years, Rosemary became district secretary of the Women's Network of the Methodist Church and progressed through the ranks until she beame national president.

A decade ago, she became president for the British section of the World Federation and her high profile in the Methodist church saw her go to Number 10 on three occasions, pressing the then Prime Minister John Major for legislation to prevent child sex tourism - which was eventually achieved.

"We are not a fund-raising organisation. We are more concerned with education and nurturing people on issues of worldwide importance," said Rosemary.

With the federation's secretary living in Mozambique, her vice-president in Zimbabwe, and the treasurer in the USA, becoming computer-literate has been vital for Rosemary. From the relatively remote picture-postcard moorland village of Fadmoor, she can make contact on the internet anywhere in the world within seconds.

But while she enjoys her new role on the world stage, there is nothing Rosemary enjoys more than returning to the North York Moors and helping on the family farm or taking services in the nine village chapels in the Ryedale circuit.

She is still involved in Fadmoor's community life, being a member of the village hall committee and the parish meeting.

"The federation cannot achieve its goals on the worldwide issues we have on our agenda on our own, but we can help influence and give confidence to those who can," said Rosemary.

Updated: 11:14 Thursday, January 10, 2002