DIGNITY IN THE WORK PLACE
Nick Donnelly: Barrow in Furness
ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Dr Peter Wilson: Seascale
CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS?
Pater Ignotus

DIGNITY IN THE WORK PLACE
Nick Donnelly: Barrow in Furness
My granddad, Joseph Donnelly, was killed in Barrow shipyard in 1944. The father of 6 children, he worked as a Plater. Walking through the Yard, he was crushed under a metal plate dropped from a crane. My Nanna received little compensation. My other granddad, Jim Donnelly, was apprenticed in the Yard at the age of 14 as a Sheet Metal Worker, and worked past retirement age. For 54 years of hard work and loyalty he received no clock, no presentation, and no pension.

Why is it that those who work in engineering and construction are often not appreciated or recognised? The talent and creativity of musicians, writers, and artists are celebrated by society, but the equal skills and ingenuity necessary to construct submarines, gas terminals or computers are more often than not ignored.

Jesus, the Son of God, worked with his hands for a living, and was likewise treated with disrespect. Mark’s Gospel records him being described in dismissive terms, ‘Isn’t this one just a craftsman?’ (Mk 6:3). Jesus’ occupation is commonly given as carpenter, but in fact the Greek word used in the Gospels is tekton, which is better described as construction worker, a job that combined carpentry with stonework and building. Jesus would have found plenty of work at the building sites of Sepphoris, a town 4 miles north-west of His home village of Nazareth, which was being transformed by Herod Antipas into his capital for the super rich.

Pope John Paul II – who laboured in a quarry and chemical factory during the Nazi occupation of Poland – has a profound sense of the dignity of work, calling Christ, the Man of Work, and referring to the ‘Gospel of work’. Jesus belongs to the ‘working world’, His words revealing His appreciation and respect for human work. Jesus sees in each form of human work an aspect of man’s likeness with God, Designer and Creator of the Universe. We all have a part in the continuing work of God, ‘My Father is working still’ (John 5:7).

There has long been solidarity between the Catholic Church and working men and women, which has made for the integration of work and faith. Both my granddads were daily communicants, going to Mass on the way to work or during their lunch break. And my dad always popped into our parish church on the way back from work. Prayer and work are intertwined in the lives of many Catholics, exemplified by the traditional practise of praying the Angelus, which brings the incarnational heart of the Gospel into the toil and mundaness of the working day.

During the 20th century, the church has reached out to the workers, out of recognition of the dignity of labour and responding to a growing alienation between church and industry. One of the most exciting of these initiatives was the worker priest movement in France and Belgium after the Second World War. Following the example of Father Jacques Loew, a Dominican priest who worked in the docks at Marseilles, hundreds of priests left their presbyteries to work in factories and building sites as worker-priests. A young polish priest, Karol Wojtyla, after visiting Fr. Loew in Marseilles in 1947 wrote ‘Father Loew came to the conclusion that the [Dominican] white habit by itself does not say anything any more today. Living among workers he decided to become one of them.” Sadly, Pope Pius XII put a stop to this movement in 1954, concerned about the priests’ involvement in politics. However, the importance of Fr. Loew’s work was recognised in 1971, when Pope Paul VI invited him to preach the Lenten retreat in the Vatican. Furthermore, the diocese’s industrial chaplains carry on Fr. Loew’s insight that the church needs to be alongside the workers on the factory floor.
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ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Dr Peter Wilson: Seascale
A newspaper article last December boasted that since a change in supply contract, every unit of electricity used at Reading University comes from “green” sources. The claim is obviously bogus, of course, since the distribution grid cannot distinguish between sources contributing to the national mix, and correspondence with the author showed that he knew it to be false, but he still maintained that the change in contract would reduce ecological damage.

To give him the benefit of the doubt, he might have been deceived by the supply company’s literature, although a man of his presumed intelligence ought to have seen through a misleading sales ploy. A moment’s thought would show that since renewable sources are limited by physical conditions, “switching to green energy” could be achieved, if it were genuinely possible in reality, only through someone else’s being switched away from it. Unfortunately a moment’s thought seems to be more than the idea generally gets. The Anglican General Synod meeting in mid-February is to include a debate on environmental issues, and a supporting document earnestly recommends this meaningless gesture as though it could do more for them than give an undeserved sense of virtue.

The threat of global warming induced by emissions of carbon dioxides appears real enough and serious enough to warrant substantial abatement. Providing electricity through renewable sources will help, but not much: they generate two or three percent of Britain’s supply at present, but most of that is hydro which is close to its practical limit, and only wind offers much hope of expansion in the foreseeable future. Owing to its variability, the average output of the turbines is commonly supposed to be about 25% of design capacity, or perhaps 30% in favourable conditions; the Department of Trade and Industry apparently assumes 35%. Now it is reported to be only 11% over a year. No wonder operators are cagey about the figures.

Tony Blair proclaims an intention to prioritise climate change in international discussions, but actions speak louder than words and at home his government’s policies are likely if anything to make matters worse. Although Britain’s contribution to the global problem is relatively small, it is large for the size of the population, and we have no moral right to lecture others while doing so little about it ourselves. We need a much more realistic approach than relying on wind and imported gas for future energy supplies. The only hope seems to be for some action after the General Election, whoever wins it; perhaps when parliamentary candidates present themselves we should question them on their intentions.
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You probably won’t remember, but in this column I first started to write about my family and our relationships with the Church. The Church passes on to us its ideals, for family, for life, and for godly things, and they’re decent ideals. But I was trying to explain that, from my perspective anyway, in real life it’s a struggle to keep everyone to the Church’s path. Our children – now aged 19, 18, 16, and 13 – certainly don’t have the respect and love for the Church which I felt when I was their age: yet they are truly loving and caring human beings, who, even though they may not go to Mass every week and do the “churchy thing”, nevertheless are the salt of the earth. They care for people, and don’t put anyone down. Now in Year 2 of university life our eldest son has only been to mass once since he left home, when his sister was confirmed. But he is truly a good person.

One of the reasons I’d not continued this dialogue in “The Voice” is that things started to become tough at work, and they have continued to be for the last year. Hugely demanding of time and energy, but with which I have had to live if I am to keep my job. That’s life, I suppose, real life, which I think at times our very clerical Church doesn’t fully comprehend. I know that there is so much for which I should be, and am, so truly and honestly thankful. For my wife, who has been the perfect partner in my life for 25 years, putting up with selfishness, work-related tensions, moods and so on. [One of her fridge-magnets always brings me down to size: “children get colds, men get flu – and women get on with it!”] And there are simply no words to describe the love, admiration, respect and care that I feel for our children, who are all now well into the transition of moving towards maturity and adulthood. They and my wife are my life.

Yet at the age of 48, I have recently found myself in a strangely selfish period, brought about by the feeling that I’m hitting buffers. Problems at work are the cause, which have soaked up so much time and energy. With three of the children still living at home, I am determined to be there and support them in their transition into adulthood. But the physical and emotional demands that my work are currently placing upon me are making it all really tough to cope with. And this is all making me feel trapped in, with choices disappearing, because I’ve got to keep going to bring in the income for the family.

Standing back from it all, as I can still just about manage to do, I can now see how much I have allowed my work to completely dominate my life in the last few years. Sucked in and unable to keep hold of true perspective, all those things that you hear about in other people, but don’t expect to happen to you. I remember that the last time I wrote in this place I speculated that I thought difficult times were ahead: how right I was. Those of you who may be of a similar age, after 30 years of dedicated and committed work and service, may be able to understand what I’m saying. For some reason, quite suddenly in my case, a change takes place. And now my worst fear, though I hope its an over-reaction on my part - is that I am asked to leave, and I’m out of work. How then will my children be able to complete their university education?

I hope I’m not coming across as paranoid! But, back then to the Church context, how can our priests really get to understand some of this, especially since they have a secure existence? No, I’m not a heathen, for I know how much they have given up to follow their calling in the service of others. Especially as one who wasn’t prepared to. But sometimes, especially at the moment, I just feel I need a couple of months away from it all to reassess and re-evaluate things, take time out to relax and think. But that’s just impossible. And anyway, as my mum used to say: “its probably just a phase he’s going through”.
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