At the close of our Fall Assembly, Sisters and Associates of St. Joseph of Peace gathered to say goodbye to Bannan House, longtime home for province events, meetings, and celebrations. Purchased with the St. Mary-on-the-Lake property in 1955, Bannan House dates back to the 1930s and has been remodelled often over its many years. Another remodelling proved to be unfeasible, so soon a new Peace and Spirituality Center will rise in the footprint of Bannan House.

We began our farewell in the chapel, where Sr. Andrea Nenzel read the Province Council minutes about the purchase of the property (some Sisters were against buying a property with no money - until they saw the property), and Sister Rita Mary Lyons (left), who was part of the first staff at Bannan House, read the opening lines of Ecclesiastes. We then walked in procession to Bannan House in the pouring rain for our goodbye, sang and prayed in the pine-panelled walls of the sunken living room for one last time, listened to Sister Charlotte Davenport's poem, This Holy House , and returned to the chapel with some of the treasures of the house - the crucifix, statues of Joseph and Mary, silver candlesticks, icon of the trinity, and violets shown in the photo (left). These treasures will be placed in the new building when it opens in the fall of 2007.

(Above, left), Sister Anna Rourke places violets, symbolic of all who have lived in Bannan House, at the altar.