Thompson Consecrated as Bishop Suffragan of New Providence

The Venerable Gilbert Arthur Thompson S.Th; M.A.; J.P. was ordained and consecrated to the order of B ishop and Bishop Suffragan of New Providence on Saturday, June 24, 2000, at Christ Church Cathedral in Nassau, The Bahamas.

He was elected Saturday, March 4, on the first ballot by the elective assembly of the Synod of the Diocese of Nassau and the Bahamas. The Venerable Gilbert Arthur Thompson served as rector of St. Barnabas Church, New Providence before his election.

Chief Consecrator for the service was the Most Rev. Drexel Wellington Gomez, Archbishop of the West Indies and Bishop of The Bahamas & The Turks & Caicos Islands. Among the co-consecrators was the Right Rev. Charles G. vonRosenberg, Bishop of the Diocese of East Tennessee.

The Diocese of East Tennessee and the Diocese of Nassau and the Bahamas entered into a companion diocese agreement at the East Tennessee Annual Diocesan Convention on February 12, 2000.

The Bahamas is a country of 700 Islands and Cays (29 inhabited) laying south east of the Florida, USA.

On November 4, 1861, The Bahamas Diocese was created. After many years of establishing its self and ministering to a varied congregation, the Diocese elected its first Bahamian Bishop to the see of Nassau and The Bahamas.

Michael Hartley Eldon, was consecrated Suffragan Bishop of New Providence on June 24, 1971. He was enthroned as Diocesan Bishop on May 28, 1972.

Upon his retirement in 1997 the Diocese elected yet another son of the soil to episcopacy of the church in The Bahamas. The Rt. Rev. Drexel Gomez, former Bishop of Barbados was elected Bishop of the Diocese. Bishop Gomez was elected Archbishop and Primate of the Province of the West Indies in 1998.