Deaths of two Westminster J&P activists

Christopher Hannington on the right

Sr Margaret Corbett

Sr Margaret Corbett, a regular member and good friend of the North London J&P Network since its beginnings in the mid 1980s, died on 15 January after a long illness. She was a Sister of St Gildas and her funeral took place on 29 January at St Peter in Chains Church, Stroud Green.

Originally from Country Galway in Ireland, Sr Margaret made her First Profession in 1952 with The Sisters of St Gildas in France. On her return to England she studied for a teaching diploma and taught for several years in schools in Somerset and London. In the early 60s Margaret embraced Vatican ll wholeheartedly and the social teaching of the Church. She studied to become a social worker and, when qualified, she worked first in Birmingham and later joined the Crusade of Rescue in Westminster Diocese. This entailed a great deal of travelling all over London and the Home Counties, especially helping young pregnant women who were alone and facing difficult decisions. This work also involved working with young couples wanting to adopt children.

Upon retirement Sr Margaret became more actively involved in the Stroud Green parish as a member of the parish and the deanery team. She worked on the RCIA programme. She had groups of young mothers who, having dropped off their children to school, met together to share the Scriptures with a view to helping their children grow in faith. Sr Margaret enjoyed going into the Infant school to read with the young children.

She was very committed in the Justice and Peace movement and represented the congregation at diocesan level. She went along to Crisis at Christmas for some years where she washed and massaged the feet of many homeless people.

Christopher Hannington

Christopher Hannington died peacefully on 22 January. He was a faithful CAFOD and J&P representative in his parish, St Peter in Chains Church at Stroud Green. He gave great support to the Finsbury Park Peace Games project, with his acumen in securing and accounting for local funds. He also played a big part in the campaign to get Arsenal to sign up to the Citizens Living Wage campaign.

His funeral will be on Friday 6 February at 12.00 in St Peter-in-Chains.

He asked for donations in lieu of flowers to three favourite charities - CAFOD, Aid to the Church in Need and WEEF - for sick and retired priests. And arranged that a selection of CAFOD prayer cards be distributed to the congregation at his funeral.

Tony Sheen of CAFOD Westminster writes:

"I first met Chris in 2006 when he became a CAFOD volunteer. His volunteer role involved visiting parishes on our behalf to talk about our work overseas and to thank parishioners for their support of CAFOD. He also encouraged people to volunteer. He was also the CAFOD representative in his own Parish of St Peter in Chains . Chris was an active volunteer and joined me helping at many training days, running CAFOD stalls and hosting events with CAFOD partners visiting from overseas. His volunteering activities for CAFOD were very much a demonstration of Chris putting his faith into action. "