NOT so much forgotten as precious little heard of, last Sunday marked Workers Memorial Day. Not so much excluded as cushy numbered, the column went brazenly along, an' all.

That Dr David Jenkins delivered the sermon - "Today the most obvious and chief reason for not believing in God is the words and actions of those who say they do" - was, as a wage slave might say, simply a nice little bonus.

Durham County Council deputy leader Bob Pendelbury, also in attendance, recalled that - when Bishop of Durham - Dr Jenkins had been "in and out of County Hall all the time" during the 1984 miners' strike.

Usually, said Bob, he'd left them with the Latin phrase "Nil illegitimis carborundum", and none had needed to ask for a translation.

The service was at St Thomas's, on Stanley Hill Top above Crook. Backed by the TUC and used in 26 countries, its local organisation was in the hands of area Trades Council secretary and Church Council member Dave Ayre, a lovely man whose father died at 62 from pneumoconiosis, miners' lung.

The pit was at Wooley, pronounced thereabouts as in truly. St Thomas's graveyard, said Dave, was full of those young and old who'd died as a result of accident and disease in the workplace.

The order of service estimated that 6,200 people in Britain alone had in the past five years been killed in work related accidents, including fishermen, forestry workers and sales representatives.

It wasn't possible to recall a sales representative falling in the line of duty, but easy to suppose one or two who might well be next.

St Thomas's, through Dave and others, has become the focal point of the struggle. The "memorial window", by which a candle constantly burns, was inspired by a young widow whose husband died from mesothelioma, an asbestos related disease.

"In loving memory of workers throughout the world who have died through accident, injury or disease in the course of their work," it reads, adding that it is a prayer for a safer workplace.

On one side is a miniature of the Wooley miners' banner - "We succour the widows and orphans" - on the west wall an original banner proclaiming socialism and revolution and similar, seemingly secular, stirrings.

A single, handwritten postcard has been placed on the sill: "In memory of the many who died, remembered by the few."

The order of service seemed a little left wing, Dr Jenkins bypassing a blessing which spoke of revolution and radicalism in favour of something a little more conciliatory. The congregation comprised about 50 workers - several of whom we'd not seen since the last Durham Big Meeting - an odd-job journalist and a placid black dog.

The service was led by Fr Peter Davis, the engaging Australian monk who briefly until last year had been Vicar of Tow Law and Stanley but whose departure through ill health had again thrown St Thomas's future into doubt - before, the parish magazine noted, the vicarage had even been allowed to get cold.

The magazine also detailed the 1,000 mile bike ride through Scotland by Dave Ayre and Jimmy French in aid of the RNIB and added that the threat of church closure was nothing new to the people who lived on the hill top.

The diocese would have a doughty opponent in Dave Ayre.

Light relief, we'd also pondered on the way up what hymns might be suitable for such an occasion, reluctantly excluding the now politically incorrect verse of All Things Bright and Beautiful about the rich man in his castle and the poor man at his gate. (He made them low and mighty, he ordered their estate.)

Instead we sang Fight the Good Fight, Dear Lord and Father of Mankind (forgive our foolish ways) and Lord of All Hopefulness, which is a sort of trades directory.

Fr Peter, now in London and too poor (he says) to afford the Campbell's lobster bisque for which his Tow Law larder was renowned, prayed that labour would be honoured and not exploited, that stricter legislation would protect from hazardous substances, dangerous conditions and unsafe behaviour in the workplace and that employers might work co-operatively.

Dr Jenkins, 80 last January, not only told us that he'd quite forgotten how bleak and deserted St Thomas's was until he got there, but that May Day also meant "revolution and red flag and all the nonsense of the total failure of any sort of solution in Marxism and communism".

Was that the shuffling of two left feet we heard, or simply the black dog wagging its tail in agreement?

It seemed to him, added the bishop - perhaps familiarly - that all the religious and the religions were trying to bring a good God down, but that you couldn't bring a good God down.

He remains tireless, sawing the air like a mystic master carpenter, railroading words and ideas one into the other as if his mental brakes had failed. It was ever thus; he remains wholly riveting.

"Though in my 81st year I am fed up of religious and religion, I can't for the life of me stop believing in God," he said.

Afterwards there was a TUC photographic exhibition which included both Tony Benn and the Grim Reaper - who are by no means synonymous - and the sort of prodigious spread for which Stanley folk are far renowned.

It worked, memorably, of course.

Sad passing of a stalwart

AMID its 150th anniversary celebrations, two days before the Ascension Day service, chapel stalwart Margaret Hobbs has died, aged 75.

We wrote two weeks ago of the anniversary at Harmby Methodist church, where Margaret was also marking 50 years - "More really, but we'll call it 50" - as organist.

Recently she'd also seen the congregation grow from four or five to around 20. "She was instrumental in keeping it going," says chapel steward George Tunstall. "When there's only a handful of you, everyone is."

She'd begun on an ancient harmonium - "Mind, I did some pedalling on that, legs like I don't know what" - and progressed to a modern keyboard.

Knowing she was unwell, she'd also played on April 24 at the principal anniversary service, led by the Rev Graham Carter, chairman of the Darlington district of the Methodist church.

"I think that was her goal," says George. "Once she'd done that, Margaret was content."

Her funeral is in Leyburn Methodist church at noon next Wednesday - at Margaret's request, with bright clothing only.