After more than a century of guidance and spiritual leadership from the Sisters of Charity, Mount St. Agnes Academy will bid farewell to the last two remaining nuns in August. It will mark the end of an era for the school which was started by the Sisters of Charity in 1890.

But for the students and teachers, last week?s assembly ? the last for the school year ? was filled with sorrow as they bade farewell to their school co-principals, Sister Judith and elementary school principal, Sister Dolores. Sister Judith, who has been with the school for 35 years and principal for 25 of those, taught chemistry and physics, adding that teaching was something she loved ?with a passion?.

Sister Dolores has been with the school for 20 years and both decided to leave while they still ?knew what was going on?.

?We?re not retiring, we?re just changing jobs,? she said with a laugh.

Sister Judith, who is 65, said she and Sister Dolores, who is 67, wanted to do a second ministry. She said Sister Dolores would get her citizenship certificate later this year and they both would stay in Bermuda and work for the Catholic Church in pastoral ministry.

?We live in a Sister of Charity owned house in Paget and we?d like it to be blessed in January next year as a house of prayer,? she said.

Sister Judith said they also planned to visit the elderly home-bound in an effort to help the six priests and Bishop in Bermuda.

?We?d like to bring God back into daily life in Bermuda. He was very much there when I came here in 1968, but poor God seems to have been put under the carpet or something since,? she said.

Sister Judith said owing to the history the Sisters of Charity have in Bermuda, during a visit earlier this year their Superior General had agreed that the two nuns could remain on the Island for as long as they were physically able to minister.

?We?re the only Catholic religious women on the Island,? she added. The two nuns, who are also best friends, agreed that their fondest memory of the last 35 years could be summarised as the ?absolute family, loving, caring culture? that developed at the school.

?We wanted it to be quality education, but ultimately relationships and people were the most important thing so that the children had a safe haven,? Sister Judith said, adding that at the school farewell they were both hugged by countless pupils.

These, she said, were memories they would keep forever.

When asked what the ?end of an era? meant to them, Sister Judith said that since 1890 there had always been Sisters of Charity at the school. She said while it was the end of an era, she felt the legacy of the Sisters of Charity would remain alive in the teachers ? 28 percent of whom where alumni and taught by the Sisters of Charity.

Sister Dolores said they were not saying goodbye because they were going to be around, God-willing, for a long time.

?I think we?ve developed a lot of good relationships, listening caring relationships, especially with parents,? she said.

When asked if she had seen the school undergo major changes in the past 35 years, Sister Judith said not only the school, but also Bermuda had changed.

?When I came here in 1968 nobody locked anything, I came when the majority of the Island got dressed up and went to church on Sundays and it really aggravates me now when I see people out jogging, racing and participating in all kinds of sporting activities on a Sunday,? she said, adding that parents had also changed.

?In 1968 parents made demands on their children, now it seems as though children rule and I see an Island where the pace has become so frenetic that children are not being nurtured. Parents think they?re nurturing their children by buying them things, but they are not spending time with them,? she said.

She said when she looked out the window, she saw ?angry? children. ?They?re angry because they?re not experiencing that time of really feeling that their parents love them. We know their parents love them and know that they feel they?re doing the right thing,? she said. But added that parents seemed to think they could not do enough for their children for the fear of letting them down, or even because of guilt.

Sister Judith said she had also seen a big change in people climbing the ladder of success and they were sacrificing their relationships in the process ? for money.

?At the end of the day it?s a relationship you have with your spouse and your children that?s important, nothing else.?

The school will undergo numerous changes before the next school year, including the closing of Woodmont Nursery on Dundonald Street. Sister Judith said the nursery school would have to close due to the financial strain that was being placed on it by Government?s new regulations.

?You have to reduce the class size, which means you need more space and need more teachers, so more salaries have to be paid,? she said. She said the building would be used by Mount St. Agnes as an administration building in the future.

Meanwhile Mr. Silcott, the former assistant principal and drama teacher of Bishop Watterson High School in Columbus, Ohio in the US will take over as principal in September and has promised to keep Sister of Charity?s legacy alive at the school ? for centuries to follow.