I know I don't do a proper job but today I hsve been thinking about those who do. I came past this massive mill of the past at Kearsley this afternoon. It dominates the area - a symbol of the might of an industrial age that transformed this region I am visiting. Everyone went to work there, the conditions were grim, but there was no alternative. It was hard work.
The world of work is perhaps no less stressful today. I watch, for example, teachers, stressed with targets and government standards; I watch people who commute every day from Sussex into London working all hours, hardly seeing family in the week. I watch prospective MPs who say they are listening to the workers. Are they really?
I worked in my first appointment in a Lancashire mill town. Life was simple, if hard. There was a certain amount of cotton to spin each day but no appraisals or targets or job insecurity. Some of my elderly ladies were very deaf from years of working by machinery, but in the main, they were content and they valued the cameradery of the mill life they shared.
Tonight I have been out at Media City and have watched people unwind with colleagues after a long working week. The context is different but perhaps the pressure is as great.
What has the church to say to the world of work now its membership is largely retired? I have friends who are workplace chaplains but I should be able to relate to this world. Perhaps it needs more conversations with people in work about what they face. Perhaps the Church needs to be more in the middle of work then expecting people who work long hours to come to meetings at night!
Much to ponder!
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