Sister Angela Murphy
1944 – 2021
Born: 26 December 1944
Entered Religious Life: 7th October 1963
Died: 3rd November 2021
Reflection given by Sr. Mary Teresa Clarke, Provincial Leader of the English/Scottish Province, at Sr Angela’s Funeral Mass
We gather together today, here in the Chapel of St Joseph’s Convent, Mare St, Hackney in the City of London, to give thanks to God, for the life and ministry of Sr Angela Murphy.
We welcome Sr Angela’s Niece Lynda and members of the Family who are with us today
We welcome everyone joining us by Video link, in particular family members from England, Scotland, Kenya, America, Ireland, Wexford and Dublin.
Also – Sisters of Charity, friends and colleagues, joining us from over the Province, from Ireland and beyond.
But we are sad that our gathering here in the Convent Chapel, is still in many ways under the shadow of the pandemic restrictions and so does not include the many Sisters, family, colleagues and friends whose lives have been touched and inspired by Angela’s love and support over many years and who would have liked to be present here today.
Sr Angela was born in Dublin in 1944, to parents Annie and Patrick, the fourth child of a family of five. Angela recalled a childhood with many happy memories of holidays by the sea in Rosslare, Wexford.
After reading the life of Mary Aikenhead, while at School in Our Lady’s Mount Harold’s Cross, Angela was inspired by her love and work among the poor and so at the age of 18, on the 7th Oct 1963, Angela joined – 21 other women who entered the Noviciate at Mount St Anne’s. Milltown.
After Profession, Angela’s journey in Ministry took her across the Irish Sea to work in Parish Ministry in the City of Birmingham.
During the next 20 years Angela’s ministered in Pastoral Care in Hammersmith and Macclesfield, later spending a number of years in Child Care in Walthamstow and Basildon.
During this time, Angela also trained in Social Work in Bristol and then on to Parish Ministry in Rock Ferry.
In 1986, Angela’s next journey in Ministry, took her a long way to Chikuni in Zambia, Central Africa, where she began development work, pastoral and youth work, but first spending time learning the local language Tonga and becoming quite fluent in it.
In 1993, Angela moved further south to Namwala to carry out similar work. Unfortunately, later that year, Angela had to return to Ireland after becoming ill with Malaria. But she often spoke of her happy memories living and working among the people in Zambia.
After her recovery, Angela moved back to Walthamstow and later to Canning Town, to work with the Homeless at ‘The Passage Centre’
In 2002, Angela’s journey in Ministry took her to Clydebank, Scotland, where she worked with Social Services on the Children’s Panel then back to Hackney, in 2005, where she began working as a volunteer with Refuges and Asylum Seekers at the Jesuit Refugee Service, where she is very fondly remembered.
Throughout Angela’s 58 years as a Religious Sister of Charity, her deep love and concern for those, most in need in our society, led her to count them, among her friends and she shared heartily in their laughter and joys as well as their griefs and sorrows, she felt herself greatly enriched and was profoundly privileged to be part of so many lives.
As a woman of faith, she celebrated the beauty and colour of nature and saw God’s majesty in the golden glow of a sunset over the ocean and in the colours of a flower. Angela loved art and photography, attempting to capture the colour and beauty of nature.
The pandemic changed all our lives and imposed restrictions, but for Angela it allowed her to continue to enjoy her ‘Art Group via Zoom’ and she was able to share her last journey through her artwork.
As sisters, her Community and her family, we all knew Angela, as someone whose bright smile made you welcome, offering a cup of tea and time to listen.
I think the lovely tributes from her friends at JRS, echo our own sense of loss and appreciation of Angela. Just to quote some of the comments:
I will cherish her memory and the charism that she brought to JRS over the years, a privilege to know her
She brightened up so many people’s days here, our friends, volunteers and staff team with her smile, words of wisdom, kindness and love
So many beautiful memories of our time together…sharing fun and laughter
But no tribute can ever encompass a life or express our love and loss,
Angela, a member of a family, a woman of faith, a Sister of Charity, inspired by the Charism of Mary Aikenhead and following in the footsteps of Christ, we believe Angela is now in the loving embrace of her Lord.
During my last time, sitting with Angela in the Homerton Hospital, she told me about a phrase in Tonga, which I think expressed her sense of peace and acceptance at the time.
Sorry Angela – I may not get it right – it was ‘inbochi bede’ which she said means ‘’that just how it is’’ Amen
On behalf of Sisters and Angela’s Family, I would like to say thank you to Fr Maurice and Fr Ray for celebrating Mass here with us today.
Sincere thanks to all Health Care Professionals at Bart’s, the Homerton and especially Lourdes Ward in St Joseph’s Hospice for their care and support of Sr Angela and all those friends and loved ones who accompanied Angela on this journey.
And finally I would like to add –
To all the Sisters and Staff here in St Joseph’s Convent, you have been part of Angela’s life over these last years –
Thank you, for the love, care and companionship you gave her.
May she Rest in Peace +
We are standing this morning on holy ground: the place where Mary Aikenhead spent the last years of her life as an invalid – a woman whose vision, courage and practical common-sense gave birth to our Congregation and to our long and graced history of service of the poor, the weak and the vulnerable.Today we are celebrating the life of Sr. Joseph Helen, a woman who cherished that charism, serving those in need with fidelity and generosity, and who also spent the last years of her life here in the Hospice.
The readings this morning are both comforting and challenging.In the Gospel Jesus speaks of himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life.He invites us to put our hope and our trust in Him and in His promise to be with us, steadily and constantly as we try each day to walk his way, to speak his truth, to live his life.It is an apt description of the life and commitment of the woman whom we are remembering here.
In her 103 years of life, Sr. Joseph Helen lived through historical and global changes that are impossible for us to imagine.She experienced seismic shifts in Church and state.She witnessed wars and famines on a world scale.Through all of those yearsshe remained steadfastly faithful to the constant core of who she was as an RSC.She was born Dorothy Cunningham in Ballacolla in Portlaoise on 1st July 1908. She was an only girl, with one brother, and was much loved by all.Her childhood and youth reflected the calm ordinariness of children’s lives at that time.Following her degree studies she spent some months caring for her mother who was ill and then secured a job teaching in Mountjoy St. School in Dublin.Her father was not impressed!His comment on hearing of that place was:“It doesn’t sound like much of a job but you like working for the poor and you’ve always been good at it”.She remained there until she entered the Sisters of Charity on 5th October 1931.
In the first reading we are told that God gives strength to the wearied; that those who hope in Yahweh will soar like eagles, run and no grow weary, walk and never tire.That was so true of J. Helen throughout her active life.She was missioned back to Mountjoy St. after her religious profession and taught there for 12 years.Following a year’s further study in Scotland, she went to teach in a Secondary Modern school inWalthamstow in England for a year.And then came the call to be one of our three founding Sisters of the Zambian Region, or Northern Rhodesia as it then was.
In 1948 they set sail, travelling for four weeks by boat – The Athlone Castle -rail, bus and lorry before arriving in Chisekesi Siding on a dark morning on 28th October 1948. Sr. Helen kept a diary of the journey which was printed for the 50th anniversary and which gives a fascinating insight into their journey and how they coped with, what was for them, such a strange and almost ‘alien’ environment.
One can only imagine the anticipation and anxiety, the challenge and the loneliness, the wonder and the doubts that marked that journey and her first months in Zambia.It was a place and people that she came to love and cherish.She committed herself to the education of girls and brought the gift of knowledge and freedom to countless women who still remember her with gratitude and appreciation.There are many past pupils with sad hearts in Zambia at the moment – their sadness at her passing tempered only by their gratitude that she is free from the debilities of her age.And that mourning is echoed this morning among our sisters there in the Region and here in this Chapel in the sisters who lived with her and shared her life for those 30 years.
Her first 15 years in Zambia were spent in the Teacher training college run by the Jesuits and began her work in promoting the education of girls – beginning with the setting up of a girls secondary boarding school in Roma in Lusaka.Nine years later she was appointed Regional Leader and on Independence day 1978she was conferred with the Order of Distinguished Service for 30 years of outstanding service to the people of Zambia in the fields of Education and Social work.
While she was a formidable woman in many ways, with high standards and expectations, her devotion to her religious life and her commitment to education was recognized and appreciated by all who knew her.She was a strict disciplinarian, spoke the truth without apology and demanded very high standards.At the same time her heart was compassionate and her generosity and hospitality were known and appreciated by all.
Like all of us, Helen has known suffering and joy, tears and laughter, pain and happiness, loneliness and friendship.And she had strong relationships with herfriends – too numerous to mention – but exemplified in the love and devotion of Sr. Mary Bernadette Collins and Catherine Fallon.Up to the end she valued and enjoyed her relationships with her nieces, nephews and other family members and followed their lives with interest, with love and with prayer.
In 1978 she was missioned to Ireland and worked on our Constitutions.Subsequently she was appointed as local leader to our community in Crumlin before her appointment to our Provincial Leadership team and consequent arrival here in Our Lady’s Mount in 1981.
Sr. J. Helen’s commitment to Mary Aikenhead’s charism was single-minded and she never compromised on that.The second reading confirms her attitude to life:nothing outweighs the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus. It is only through Him, with Him and in Him that we can find life and happiness and fulfilment.Rooted in that conviction, she endorsed and embraced anything that served the people for whom she cared in a better, more dignified or respectful way.
She suffered in her growing debility and weakness these last years and all of us – family, community, friends and colleagues – were saddened as we watched her suffering and her struggle to cope.In spite of the wonderful, caring staff who surrounded her and the sisters and friends who were her constant support,she had difficult and dispiriting days.Yet she never gave up .Her faith in Providence was the touchstone of her life.In the midst of all her pain and letting-go she was confident that he was with her, holding her, comforting her and in the end, calling her to himself.And when that call came, sheyielded her spirit to the Lord, peace-filled, calm and trusting – blest with a death that had no struggle, no pain, no fear.And perhaps I can end with some words of hers, written in the diary of which I spoke, on her arrival in Chikuni:“Now that we have reached our Promised Land we must thank God and Our Lady for our very pleasant and on the whole easy journey which we have had . . . . “Those words echo, not only the journey to Chikuni, but her life journey, now at its end as she moves, we believe, into the fullness of the Promised land of God’s life and love.
