When we think of fashion, we think of Beau Brummell. Born on 7 June 1778, he was the archetypal dandy. In our day when men’s fashion has reached its nadir, we are hard-pressed to rate the significance of a man who not only lavished money on his wardrobe but inspired his associates to have daily baths, clean their teeth with care and in general appear in public in imaginative garb – all this on the basis of a massive inheritance from his father.
Truly, things were different then. Different that is for those who were born in the purple. Different too because the world they adorned was passing away. The steam age, the industrial revolution was about to transform the lives of vast numbers from rural to urban, from predictable to opportunistic, from exploited to ambitious. Brummell’s destiny was to be consigned to the history-books.
Fashion remains our preoccupation, though it has little to do with men’s penchant for barathea or Macassar. Fashion, food, football and health are strong competitors for attention. But the key to it all is purple. This was the colour of high-ranking Roman citizens. It came from the murex, a gastropod, a creature such as a snail or slug with a large muscular foot.
Curiously, this creature has its place in the early history of Christianity. In Acts 16.14 we read of Lydia listening to Paul chatting with women outside the city gate of Philippi. Lydia was a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira. We are told that she was a worshipper of God. She responded to Paul’s discourse and was baptized. She insisted on offering hospitality to Paul and his party. We should like to know more but that is all we are told. Whether Lydia continued in her luxury trade or whether she had made enough money to devote herself to other things, we do not know.
A SOLAR FIRST
St Paul’s church, Stockton-on-Tees has had a number of extensions, the latest being a centre in 2004. In 2011 solar panels were fitted to the centre roof, generating up to 10,000kW a year. It was the first church in the Durham diocese to make such a move. Paul Arnold leads the ministry team.
PURPLE PRAISE
Purple Praise is on the agenda at Fellside team ministry, Lancashire. It caters, I take it, for older members of the congregation. Keeping in touch with parishioners is a weekly update and a 36-page magazine. Team Rector of the five churches is Steve Cooper. Once a RNLI crew member, he is now chaplain of the Fleetwood RNLI boat. ’God is more interested in where we are going than where we have been,’ he says.
SANS PAREIL
The industrial revolution took off in such places as Shildon, near Bishop Auckland, County Durham and a grave in the churchyard is evidence of that. Timothy Hackworth designed the early steam locomotive Sans Pareil, and the Stockton and Darlington railway introduced rails to the parish. The Sans Pareil can be seen at Shildon Locomotive Museum. Leading the ministry team is Carol Harris.
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