Thought for the week 28 July 2024

Dear Friends,

There are people in life who ‘fit in’ to a situation so well that you could occasionally not notice them there at all, because they become part of the furnishings of the place, and it is only when they are not there that you realise quite how important they had been in making a place seem complete. Thus it was with Father Harry Pugh, who has now departed this life in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life as promised by Christ to all who love Him. May Harry rest in peace.

Fr Harry ‘fitted in’ to our life here at St Stephen’s and complemented it very easily. He was involved in the choirs, in the liturgy both on Sundays and Friday at midday, he attended our social events and celebrated his Fiftieth anniversary of Ordination here with us last year. Somebody once asked me ‘is he the Vicar’ and I said ‘no, only on Fridays and when I’m on holiday’ which was met with a look of blankness, later giving rise to humour, as he realised that Fr Harry was so well integrated into the life of the church that he needed no title except his name.

He was always pleased to see me walking into Cask Bar in Bispham, because he knew that a reasonable amount of Merlot was about to come his way, and at some point, he would get the chance to rehearse his favourite speech in which he would gently explain to me why we should go back to ‘proper’ liturgical language, but when he realised that the flow of Merlot has become a trickle, he relented and said ‘well, it probably doesn’t matter really’. I never intruded on his time in the Conservative Club, where he had his friends and companions who had no crossover into the life of the church, showing a sound grasp of a work/life balance which so eludes many clergy!

Fr Harry did not fit into hospital at all, and was fed up with being there and clearly wanted the whole thing to be over, one way or another. A naturally sociable, gregarious man like Harry does not easily segue into tubes and ventilators and beeping machines and nurses faffing around continuously, and I thank God that he had no more time there than he had to. On his final day, he was sedated and ventilated and as I gave him the Last Rites, he woke up and seemed to accept totally what was going on. Once his ventilator was removed, I sat with him reading the Psalms until the medication and sedatives took over and breath, shortly after, no longer seemed important. Thank you to those who visited him in that final week, and to Fr Clive the Hospital Chaplain.

Isaiah the Prophet writes in Chapter Forty Three;

Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.a

Fr Harry took great delight in being a Priest, and there is nothing else I could imagine him doing, and he ministered extensively in Manchester and Lancashire and even in Cornwall (where he twice served as Mayor!). He and we know that we should not dwell on the past, but to take joy and consolation from what is new – as he was in hospital, his friend Fr Josh celebrated his first mass and was ordained and on the day he died, we baptised a new Christian and planned our new youth ministry. Harry had his part to play in making paths in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, as all the Baptised do, and we give thanks to God for the faithfulness with which he undertook that work and the joy he brought to so many. May he rest in peace.