THE Society of Our Lady of the Isles
Isle of Unst, ShetlanD
A change in the Community happened in October 2022 when the Reverend Mother Mary Agnes, who founded the Community 40 years ago, moved from Shetland for greater ease of medical care and to be nearer to her sister and brother-in-law in England.
It means that there is just one Sister in life vows now in Shetland, living in sheltered care at Uyeasound on Unst. Mother Mary Agnes and Sister Mary Aidan will continue their religious lives as before - but in separate locations.
The Society of Our Lady of the Isles is a religious community of the Scottish Episcopal Church with its resident community latterly based on the Island of Unst, in the north of the Shetland Isles. Prayer was always at the heart of its existence and the Rule is partly Celtic and partly Carthusian, enabling a life of solitude within a community.
The Community was founded on the nearby Isle of Fetlar. However, Unst offered more medical and social care than was possible on Fetlar, and so the chapels and other community buildings on Fetlar were sold and a new chapel and hermitages built at Westing on the Atlantic coast of Unst.
The future hope is that another religious community (women or men) may find the excellent buildings on Unst of use for one, two, three or four members to come to Shetland either permanently or for an extended Retreat, or to complete a particular piece of work and, of course, to continue the wonderful legacy of Mass and prayer built up in the present Chapel and its predecessors.
The Warden of the Community, Dean Graham Taylor remains in place as do the Society's Trustees. One of Mother's final decisions before leaving Unst was to appoint Father Graham as an additional Warden Emerius, with the appointment coming into effect when he decides the time is right to step down as Warden.
The origins of the Community go back to 1984 when Sister Agnes, (now the Reverend Mother Mary Agnes) came to Fetlar from the Convent of the Franciscan Servants of Jesus and Mary at Posbury Saint Francis in Devon to live a solitary life of prayer. In time she was joined by others and the Society was founded in 1988. Mother Mary Agnes was installed as Mother Guardian in 1993 and ordained a priest of the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney in 1998. She is the author of four books which tell the story of the Community's life on the Isle of Fetlar. A fifth book is nearing completion.
The Community's first Chapel - the Byre Chapel, in the steading of the croft house on Fetlar in which Mother Mary Agnes lived when she first came to the island - remained in use until December 2014. Its companion on Fetlar, the newer Chapel of Christ the Encompasser, continued for a further seven months until the summer of 2015. The Right Reverend Dr Robert Gillies, former Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney, consecrated the new Chapel of Jesus the Good Shepherd at Westing on February 18th 2019.
The Warden of the Community is The Very Reverend Graham Taylor, Rector of Saint John's, Perth, and Dean of the Diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane. He was appointed as Warden in 2019. Father Graham can be contacted by phone at 01738 245922 or by email at rector@episcopalperth.org.uk
The previous Warden, the Very Reverend Gerald Stranraer-Mull, Dean Emeritus of Aberdeen and Orkney, retired as Warden in 2019 after the new Chapel at Westings was consecrated. He was appointed as Warden Emeritus as a continuing link with the Community, with which he has been associated from its beginning in 1988. He has known Mother Mary Agnes from the time of her arrival in Shetland four years earlier. Father Gerald can be contacted by phone at 01463 793943 or by email at gerald.stranraermull@gmail.com