St. Lukes, Buckfastleigh

After all these ancient buildings, a modern one. St. Luke’s has an interesting story. The old church for the town is Holy Trinity, up a hill some way from the town. In 1894 a simple church, St. Luke’s, was opened as a chapel of ease for Buckfastleigh. In 1992, Holy Trinity was severely damaged in a fire. It would have been difficult to have rebuilt this building as there is an extensive cave system underneath which would have precluded the use of heavy machinery. The tower has been restored and the bells re hung. It sees the occasion service.

St. Luke’s was demolished and a new building erected. This was consecrated on October 13th 2002. It is a light, airy building which must be a good place to worship in. There is a lounge and a side chapel. Also, there is a lovely prayer chapel built of glass bricks with stained glass windows rescued from the old St. Luke’s. These were renovated as a gift by Buckfast Abbey.

The font is from Holy Trinity and bears the scars of the fire. It is a nice reminder of what was, and what is now. All this is explained in a simple leaflet. There is also a history of Holy Trinity available.

There is a hall underneath the worship area as well as meeting rooms and a kitchen. It is all very usable and very well done. The visitors book had 4 entries in it for the last 22 days and there is a prayer board to use as well as a ‘prayer cross’.

There was a good selection of leaflets and a selection of the Nicky Gumble ‘Searching Questions’ booklets about various aspects of the Christian faith.

Perhaps not an obvious church to visit but well worth it. It is a prayerful place and right in the heart of Buckfastleigh. I rate St. Luke’s as good.