THE final scheduled Catholic mass to take place in a Portland church will begin at 3pm tomorrow.
Bishop Christopher Budd of the Plymouth diocese will lead the service for members of Our Lady and Saint Andrew's Church at the Anglican St Andrew's Church, Southwell.
The service will mark the merger of Weymouth and Portland as a single Catholic parish, which will be overseen by Father Stephen Geddes of St Augustine's Church, Weymouth.
Bishop Budd said: "Of course I feel sad about running the final mass but I think, as you let go of some things, other things become available to you.
"It won't be the last Catholic mass on the island because there will still be services at the YOI and Verne prison and there's nothing to say there may not be masses at churches on the island again in the future.
"I would like to add that we are very grateful to the Anglican community for allowing us to use St Andrew's Church."
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Catholics stopped using Our Lady and Saint Andrew's Church after rot began to set in.
The Dorset Echo's Portland correspondent Hilda Swinney, who will read at tomorrow's mass, said: "I'm very sad about it, as is I think the whole congregation.
"We will never again be the little community that we have been for the last 30 years that I've been here."
Father Kieran Kirby, who will step down from running St Joseph's Church, Westham after the parish merger, said: "Weymouth and Portland will become one parish at the end of July.
"This is all part of the ongoing changes in the church and Portland is going to very much be part of the new parish.
"It's very sad to see the last church mass on Portland, but there are always new beginnings from endings."
Father Kirby added that he does not yet know where he will move on to after July.
Portland-based Sister Maria Cooke of the order of Les Filles de la Croix (or 'daughters of the cross') said: "I'm looking forward with hope and confidence that, with an increase of priests, we will be able to restore a church to Portland in the future.
"Change always takes place and sometimes it's for the better, and I will be staying on Portland to serve local Catholics."
The newly formed Weymouth and Portland parish will be known as the parish of Our Lady Star of the Sea.
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