GIRL Guides looked to divine inspiration for a fundraising scheme for BBC Children in Need and found it in the shape of the Archbishop of Wales.

The Most Rev Dr Rowan Williams agreed to trade places with one member of the 1st Oakdale St David's group for one day in aid of the BBC charity.

After an election campaign, which involved the Guides making speeches and voters paying to make their choice, 12-year-old Oakdale Comprehensive pupil Rhian Hartshorn emerged as the winner.

Her friend, Emily Bradford-Bolwell, also 12, was elected as her chaplain. At school assembly, Rhian and the Archbishop performed a grand handover. He received a timetable of the lessons he would attend and she was given a crozier (shepherd's crook) and the Archbishop's historic gold cross, first presented in 1920, to mark the founding of the Church in Wales, when it separated from the Church of England. The Archbishop said he was apprehensive about his music lesson, as Rhian plays the double bass and he doesn't.

"I've got a note from my daughter asking to excuse me from PE, as I don't have any kit. "I gather we've also got religious instruction today, which is a bit of a worry, as I don't have the answers to all of the questions."

As he headed off to French - an easy subject for the multilingual Archbishop, who has mastered French, German, Welsh and a smattering of ancient Greek, Hebrew and Russian - his 'successor' dictated a letter to the prime minister about the war in Afghanistan and Christmas greetings to friends and counterparts around the world. A special ceremony was held to 'enthrone' her grace Rhian at St Woolos Cathedral in Newport, seat of the Diocese of Monmouth and after chairing a meeting of the rural deans - with a little help from senior clerics - and lunch in Cardiff, she returned to school to swap back.

"I liked being enthroned in the cathedral, but the hardest bit was writing the letters," she said.

Her 'chaplain' said the part she liked best was the meal.

* PICTURE: The Most Reverend Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Wales, with Girl Guide Rhian Hartshorn of the 1st Oakdale St David's group