The Henson Journals

[213]

Saturday, May 24th, 1919.

I wrote to George Nimmins, who is going away for an indefinite period, as his ship will ply between New York and China. After breakfast I wrote a number of letters, and then began to consider the question raised by Lord Haldane, viz: What is the definition of the Church of England? There is the Bidding Prayer, which implies that the English Church consists of "the whole congregation of faithful people" dispersed through this country. The first 12 canons of 1604 define membership of the Church of E. by stating what descriptions of men are ipso factoexcommunicate.

Mrs Capper & her friend Miss Dumaresq Thomas called to see me, & to pour out their complaints against their parson. It is difficult to see what a Bishop can do in such a case, for neither tactlessness, nor wrong–headedness, not even indolence, not all three in combination amounts to such a breach of the law as would justify episcopal action!"We have the treasure in earthen vessels". In the case of this parson the fault appears to lie between himself & his wife. He is a Socialist, as a quondam curate of Jimmie Adderley's might be expected to be: she is a "suffragette", with a reputation for violence earned in the good old days before the War. Both have been inclined to "pacifism" during the War, & are now in the habit of belauding "Bolshevism"!!

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