Parish Administrator, Gwen Heathfield has been an Anglican all her life. Born in England she also lived in the Netherlands for a few years before coming to South Africa with her parents at the age of eleven. She grew up in Port Elizabeth and was confirmed and married in the now Anglican cathedral, St Mary’s. Her elder daughter, Carolynn, was baptised at St Mary’s and her younger daughter, Elinor, at St Katherine’s in Uitenhage. Together with her husband Des, she joined the parish of Corpus Christi in 1996. They both became involved in the life of the parish, Des by helping with maintenance work, Gwen with sewing vestments and both with doing sides person’s duties. She was widowed in 2005 and her family is like that of many South Africans, with a daughter living in Ireland, a grandson in England, a granddaughter in New Zealand and, luckily, a daughter and granddaughter in Pretoria.

Gwen worked at the CSIR for many years in various positions in the financial and computer fields and was parish administrator at Corpus Christi from 2006 until 2009, when she left to work in the Diocesan office as the Bishop’s PA. On leaving there, she joined a non-profit organisation, Future Families, working in the finance and payroll sections until the end of 2017 when she was retrenched. The position of Parish Administrator at Corpus Christi had become available and she was successful in her application for her old job at the beginning of 2018.