The Tribune

SISTER Annie Thompson, the guitar-playing nun whose heart as a young woman would quicken to the beat of goat skin drums, has been elected for the second time as Prioress of the Sisters of St Benedict at St Martin Monastery on Nassau Street. The term is for four years.

Sister Annie was first elected to this position in 1998, the second Bahamian prioress to hold the post after St Martin’s de Porres convent became an independent Benedictine Monastery in 1994. Sister Clare Rolle was its first prioress, elected on August 6, 1994.

In a statement from the Monastery this week, it was said that on Saturday, May 31, “after prayer and discernment Sister Annie was elected as the fourth Prioress of the Sisters of St Benedict.”

On her fiftieth anniversary as a nun - in December, 2012 - Sister Annie admitted that had it not been for the late Father Sylvan Bromenshenkel, she might never have considered the religious life. There were many options open to the fun-loving young woman. However, the literature, given her by Fr Sylvan, on the religious life of St Benedict’s Convent in Minnesota, caused her to pause and seriously consider her future.

Since then Sister Annie has accomplished much in her life of service - teaching, travelling and ministering - experiencing both the good and not so good sides of life.

In an interview with Tribune reporter Jeffarah Gibson in December, 2012, she summed up her life of service.

“This life takes a deep faith that you are doing the right thing,” she said. “The community life is not an easy one to live, but in my estimation now that I have mixed with so many married people it is far better. For a period of time married people get bored, worn out and tired. I think it is a very valid life, and I think it takes being friends to remain married because a friend would overlook mistakes,” she said.

“Also in the community life you have all sorts of people from different backgrounds. Some of them come from different family backgrounds, so you have to be able to give and take and help one another because that is what you do. Community life could be very difficult or it could be very happy, it just depends on what you make it because you have things in common, you do a lot of things in common, you have rules and regulations and you work for one another,” she said at the time.

In 2011 Sister Annie fulfilled a life-long dream when she went to Uganda to visit the African Benedictine communities there. She was accompanied by Sisters Barbara Schmitz and Carolyn Fuhs of Indiana.

In March 2000 Theta Epsilon Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated honoured Sister Annie for her commitment to religion. She was also made an officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday honours list. She was also honoured by

the Primary Principals Association, the Margaret MacDonald Foundation and the Archdiocese for Church Music Ministry.

As spiritual leader of her community, Sister Annie is expected to provide formation and vocation programmes, spiritual development programmes within the community and direct the development of community life. Sister Annie will be assisted by a council of elected and appointed members from within the community.

Sister Annie is from the well-known Thompson family of Gregory Town, Eleuthera. She is the seventh child of John and Muriel (Johnson) Thompson. She attended Quarry Mission, Western Junior and St Francis Xavier grade schools and Xavier’s College High School in Nassau, and received her college education at The College of St Benedict, St Joseph, Minnesota.

Sister Annie has been a member of the Benedictine community for 54 years.