Sister Teresa Clements was born on July 18,1939. She died on February 18, 2007, aged 67.
Teresa Agnes Clements was born in Croydon, Greater London, and was so impressed by the Sisters who ran Coloma Convent Grammar, where she was a pupil, that she asked to join the Congregation of the Daughters of Mary and Joseph. After initial formation in Belgium she made her first vows and qualified as a teacher.
After a year of teaching she was sent to a secondary school in Uganda, and by the age of 24 she was head of the school at Mbarara. Within a few years she moved to lecturing in a training college in the Fort Portal district of western Uganda.
In 1974 Sister Teresa was asked to go to Ghana to help a new African community of Sisters. Here, she began her work of giving retreats to Sisters and priests. After further studies in Rome, she was awarded a doctorate from the Gregorian University and began to lecture on theology and spirituality.
The next stage in her life took her to Ireland, where she taught courses on spirituality and began a creative association with the Carmelite Friars that led the Prior General to make her an affiliate member of the Carmelite Order. During this time she wrote numerous articles and the book Missionary Spirituality: For the Praise of His Glory.
On returning to England, Sister Teresa became president of the Conference of Religious, a member of the board of the Catholic Agency for social concerns and an adviser to the Church of England on religious life. She enjoyed helping clergy with ongoing formation, especially with their life of prayer.
From 1997 Sister Teresa lived with cancer but her commitment to her work never diminished, and she gave lectures to the medical and nursing staff at the Royal Marsden Hospital, south-west London, from a patient's perspective.