The Henson Journals

[55]

2nd Sunday after Trinity, June 9th, 1918.

1406th day

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The sky is overcast, the glass has fallen: there is a sound of rain in the air. I went to the Cathedral, and received the Holy Communion at 8 a.m.: and then set my face towards the troubled & troublesome parish of Bredwardine, which still lies vicar–less after many months. The dilapidated state of the vicarage deters men from coming. Add that the churchwardens are quarrelling, & that one of them is of the gentler sex! I had a pleasant day on the whole. There was a fair congregation at Mattins, and quite a large one at Evensong. I lunched with Mr Willliams, the Vicar's warden, and had tea with Miss Philipson, the People's Warden. My sermons were designed to promote peace in the parish, & were listened to very closely. In the afternoon I took the service in Brobury, where the chancel of the church, destroyed by faculty in 1873, has survived as a mortuary chapel. Thus I preached 3 extempore sermons in one day, besides reading the service. Mr Turner, the parson to whom at my request the Archdeacon offered Bredwardine, motored over to see me, & caught me just as I was leaving the church at Brobury. He is a vacillating kind of man, given to procrastination, & he "funks" the vicarage house. I told him he ought to accept the living. The Sunday paper reports the appointment of Bishop Welldon as Dean of Durham. He is 64 years old, the right age for a Dean. He has a high record, academic & educational, & so far he will satisfy the conditions of that Deanery. But he is fundamentally, a wind–bag, & has just signed an "orthodox" petition.

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