Monday 2nd June 2014
The Torbay Ordinariate Mission has celebrated its first Mass in a Methodist church in Torquay, which it is renting from the local Methodist Community. Fr David Lashbrooke, leader of the mission, celebrated Mass for the Ascension of Our Lord on Sunday 1 June at Chelston Methodist Church. The Methodist community are leaving the building, but are hoping that a Christian community will be able to buy it from them so that a Christian presence can be maintained there. From now until the end of August, the Torbay Ordinariate Mission will rent the building; their hope is that, by that time, they might have been able to raise the necessary finances to buy it.
Fr Lashbrooke says: "The Torbay Ordinariate Mission is committed to working with the local churches in the area and especially with the Catholic Church of Holy Angels, Chelston, which has given us such generous hospitality in these last challenging years. The Methodist church, which is close to Holy Angels, would make an exciting project for us because the building has all the necessary space for a mission community to lead a full liturgical life, as well as providing space for teaching and general outreach into the local community".
A lay member of the Ordinariate mission who was at the Mass on Sunday said it was marked by a "great sense of joy".
