"One of the other sisters at Littlehampton told me she would like to have been a priest," says Sister Anastasia. "But I don't feel called to it. Priesthood is a service not a status. I don't want to be on a pedestal — leave me where I am. Besides, I've had plenty of influence without necessarily having to have put my neck on the block for it."  Sister Teresa is similarly unconvinced: "I've never wanted to be a priest. I've never wanted to be a tightrope walker either."

While convent life has clearly always demanded a deep spiritual commitment, the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience seem ever more at odds with the prevailing secular individualism of 21st-century Western society. "Money and career are now the great attractions for most young people because of the rise of individualism," agrees Sister Anastasia. "But if people only knew the happiness they could have from my way of life, they'd come flocking." Indeed, listening to her recount the work she has done with such unremitting joy, from transforming violent and shattered estates to providing holidays for deprived children, it is impossible not to feel anything but respect for her, and gratitude for what she and the Franciscan sisters have achieved.

As coalition cuts reshape the UK's welfare provision, the importance of nuns becomes evident: they can help to absorb the community work that charities previously funded by the government can no longer afford to carry out, and have decades of experience in doing so. Yet so far no mention seems to have been made of how they might fit in to the Big Society. "If I had 100 sisters here I'd have work for them to do every day," Sister Anastasia tells me. "I think that there are people in government who are very Christian-minded but so far I've seen no sign of them reaching out to us. David Cameron is a good man, but he says one thing and does another."

Sister Gemma is even more forthright: "David Cameron is not reaching out to nuns in the slightest. It is deplorable to ignore them when you think of the grassroots work they do, their wealth of pastoral experience and the significant contribution they make. They are one of the great untapped resources, both in terms of David Cameron's government, and the Church itself."