Out to the Isles

In a move that chimes with Pope Francis’ call for the Church to go out to the peripheries, the outgoing Bishop of Plymouth, Christopher Budd, is planning to spend half his retirement on the Isles of Scilly.

There has not been a resident priest on the Scillies since 1980, and the bishop will serve a tiny Catholic community, believed to number about a dozen. He will live in a flat on St Mary’s, the largest island, for six months of the year and say Mass at the Chapel of Our Lady Star of the Sea. The other half of his year will be spent serving in a parish in Lyme Regis, Dorset.

Mary Dean, who used to look after the chapel with her husband, Bill, told us she was “thrilled to bits” that the bishop was coming. She explained that Mass had previously been dependent on whether or not a priest was visiting the islands.

This was more regular in the summer months but only intermittent in winter and could mean Christmas and Easter passing without a priest.

Bishop Christopher is understood to love the Isles of Scilly and has been a regular visitor during his almost 28 years of ministry to Plymouth Diocese. The building ­containing the Our Lady Star of the Sea Chapel was purchased from the Duchy of Cornwall in 1949.