At the end of September Bishop Egan of Portsmouth came to the Island to celebrate Mass at Sacred Heart Church, Shanklin to marke the 125th anniversary of the parish.

The first Mass in the original church was on 21st August 1888.

In the afternoon he went to St. Patrick’s, Sandown for Evening Prayer and Benediction to mark the 75th anniversary of the consecration of the church. (It was consecrated to the glory of God and in honour of St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, 1938, by Bishop William Cotter.

The bishop also went to the cemetery to bless the gravestone of Fr. Henry Donnelly, former parish priest of Totland, Shanklin, and Chaplain of St. Anthony’s Convent, also in Shanklin, Fr. Donnelly died last year. An appreciation of his ministry can be read in the Obituary page.