26th August 2011
For immediate release:
The Rt Rev. Mark Davies, the Bishop of Shrewsbury, has paid tribute to a priest who has died from acute leukaemia at the age of just 51 years.
Father Christopher Jenkins died in Christie’s Hospital, Manchester, on August 23, in the 25th year of his priesthood, surrounded by close family and friends and fortified by the sacraments of the Church which he had received just hours earlier.
On the evening of August 31 his body will be received into the Church of Our Lady and the Apostles in Shaw Heath, Stockport, and at 7pm a prayer vigil for his family and friends will be led by Monsignor Philip Egan, the Vicar General of the Diocese of Shrewsbury.
The funeral for Father Jenkins will be held in the church from 12 noon on September 1 and priests from across the diocese have been invited to concelebrate the Requiem Mass.
Bishop Davies said: “Father Chris Jenkins had served in so many capacities during his priestly life which had taken him to different parts of the country as a Sacred Heart Father and into so many different fields of work.
“Like every priest his life had been an influence on a countless number of people but the most surprising and unexpected (not least to Father Chris himself) was the service of his final months.
“Everyone who spent time with him came away touched by his courage and cheerfulness in the face of rapidly diminishing health. Father Chris’s own perspectives on his last illness were shaped by a final pilgrimage to the Holy Land which caused him to speak amid the uncertainties of his treatment of entering the Garden of Gethesemane and sharing Christ’s prayer, ‘not my will, but yours be done …’ and in his final days simply holding in his hospital room a cross carved in olive wood.
“We pray very much that his pilgrimage on this earth completed he may at last be welcomed into the heavenly Jerusalem.”
Obituary of Father Christopher Jenkins:
Born in Bowdon Vale Nursing Home, Altrincham, on 31st March 1960, Christopher Jenkins was educated at Our Lady’s Primary School, Stockport, and at Xaverian College, Manchester.
He entered the Sacred Heart Fathers and studied at Mater Dei Institute, Dublin; Ushaw College, Durham, and AT Durham University. He was ordained at St Joseph’s Church, Stockport, on 31 January 1987.
Father Jenkins then served at St John Ogilvie Church, Irvine, Ayrshire, followed by 10 years at Dehon House in Little Sutton (1987-1997), Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. During his last two years at Dehon House he was the Episcopal Vicar for Religious for the Diocese of Shrewsbury.
After further studies at The Institute of St Anselm, Margate (1997-99), Kent, he went to Malpas, Cheshire, as Superior and Director of the Retreat Centre (1999-2005). He was also a Provincial Councillor, Mission Secretary and Vocations Promoter.
In 2005 he spent a year completing his PhD at Manchester University on the relationship between Psychotherapy and Spirituality (2005-06) and was accepted by Bishop Brian Noble, then the Bishop of Shrewsbury, into the Diocese of Shrewsbury with a view to incardination which was formalised early in 2011, making him a diocesan priest.
He resided at Our Lady’s, Stockport, and joined the staff of St Luke’s Centre, Manchester. He also worked nationally as chair of the body for counsellors working with faith and spirituality and Editor of the journal Thresholds. May he rest in peace.