The Henson Journals

[38]

Saturday, January 4th, 1919.

I wrote a little preface for Fawkes's pamphlet, and sent it back to him. I paid £50 to the Diocesan Board of Finance, & accompanied the cheque with a letter to the Treasurer explaining that I could not afford more than £100 yearly while I was repaying the drainage loan. It is humiliating, but indispensable. I sawed wood for a full hour by way of taking exercise. Wynne–Willson went through the list of Lenten Confirmations with me, and we fixed provisional dates. The crowd of inaccessible little Shropshire parishes is a problem.

Ernest Pearce's appointment to the Bishoprick of Worcester will not please the "Catholicks", for he so far departed from his ordinary avoidance of decisive action as to sign the protest of the Nine bishops against the proposed changes in the Communion Service. He will strengthen the opposition to the reigning policy of the bishops, and ought to gain an accession of personal influence. It cannot be denied that the recent appointments to the Episcopal Bench have tended to weaken the Tractarian Dominance. Bristol, Hereford, Worcester, Southwark, Peterborough, and Chelmsford form a block, which might be worked into a fighting factor of some force.

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