St. Mary\'s June 2015 Magazine

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In My Day The ramblings of Hubert James In my day it was abut this time of year that we cleared the air. No not that sort of air clearing, I mean the real air. You see in my day our houses all had open fires. And open fires produce smoke. All winter long a cloud of smoke would hang over us, even deep in the Shires. I’m guessing some of you younger folk think chimneys are just for decoration or Santa Claus. In fact they were a clever way of stopping folk choking to death by taking the smoke up and away. Mind you, I heard that they have now been put on the endangered species list. Course Chimney Sweeps have been on the list a lot longer. You see without a Sweep to clear the soot left behind by the smoke, you was guaranteed to have a fire not only in the grate but also in the chimney. And once the chimney caught fire your chimney breast would crack open with the heat. Your Sweep was vital. In my day we had 3 sweeps working around Finedon. As you’ll know traditionally the Sweep would use a small child to shin up the chimney and scrub out the soot. It was left to an enterprising sweep by the name of Richard Fantyke to invent the circular brush on a pole. Dick’s wife was fed up with having to wash her children’s clothes and nagged him to come up with an alternative. His prototype used straw attached to some runner bean sticks. It worked and the local kids breathed a sigh of relief which they rather enjoyed because they had trouble breathing anything and sighing had been beyond them. Gradually, though we needed less Sweeps. Folk chose other ways of heating their homes. Redundant Sweeps turned to turning up at weddings as good luck charms. See, Sweeps was considered lucky. Shake hands with a Sweep and celebrate how lucky you was not to be one. Mass sweeping came to a sad end in the 1960’s when a Sweep called Harry Corbett was due to do the whole of Summerlee Road while folk were away for factory fortnight. The fool went and invited all his mates around for a huge Sweep party. They was dancing on the roofs and stepping in time to the music. They left a helluva mess, and Harry was plastered from head to toe in black dust. When the residents returned to their filthy homes they took legal action and Harry was ruined. He gave up sweeping and took to the stage. The ET ran the story under the headline; Sooty Sweep Sued.
Rt Revd John Holbrook, Bishop of Brixworth writes When Bishop John Flack and I were introduced to Pope Francis in St Peter's Square last month, his opening words to us were; "Please pray for me and I will pray for you". One of the great joys of being one of your bishops is the knowledge that across the diocese you are praying for me and it’s a great encouragement. Indeed my former bishop once confessed; “It’s only your prayers that stop me falling over!” Such partnership in Christian living was also reflected in Archbishop Justin's enthronement. At the Cathedral door he was asked; "Who are you?" and answered; "I am Justin, a servant of Jesus Christ, and I come as one seeking the grace of God, to travel with you in his service together.” One aspect of that serving together for Pope Francis and Archbishop Justin has been to join forces with other world faith leaders in addressing the evil of Human Trafficking at a time when more people are in slavery than in the days of Wilberforce. The Anglican Centre in Rome is playing a major role in this initiative. Another shared concern is the Mission of the Church. Before his Good News People election Pope Francis said; “The only purpose of the Church is to go out to tell the world the good news about Jesus Christ” and he criticised the Church for being “selfreferential”, refusing to go beyond itself and wanting to keep Jesus within. He continued; “The Church is supposed to be the mysterium lunae – the mystery of the moon is that it has no light but simply reflects the light of the sun.” He concluded; “The next Pope should be someone who helps the Church surge forth to the edges like a sweet and comforting mother who offers the joy of Jesus to the world.” It seems that his fellow Cardinals took him at his word and said; “You’re the man!” If we find ourselves resonating with his call, I believe Christ would say to us; “You’re the ones! Reflect my light and offer my joy to world”. As Isaiah discovered many centuries before, our only response can be; “Here am I, send me”. +John Bishop of Brixworth With best wishes Diocese of Peterborough - Magazine 13 Resource - June 2015 Produced by the Diocesan Office, The Palace, Peterborough PE1 1YB 01733 887000 www.peterborough-diocese.org.uk
Page 1 and 2: Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Fine
Page 3 and 4: From The Vicarage, June 2015. It’
Page 5 and 6: From the Registers Holy Baptism 19t
Page 7 and 8: Church of St Mary the Virgin Finedo
Page 9 and 10: Townswomen’s Guild The June meeti
Page 11: Finedon Over 60’s Club Our weekly
Page 15: June 1st 2nd 6th 4/11/ 18/25 6/7th

St. Mary\'s June 2015 Magazine

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