The Henson Journals

[192]

Wednesday, October 1st, 1919.

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The strike continues on the whole satisfactorily. There are a few acts of sabotage reported, but mostly good order has been kept. The general unsettlement infects one's mind and makes the performance of duty enormously difficult. Wynne Willson motored with me to Kimbolton, where I inducted the new vicar, Tallents to the parish. In spite of damp & depressing weather a good congregation had come together. The Rural Dean, Davies, Rector of Stoke Prior attended & several of the neighbouring incumbents. The service was reverent, & not unimpressive: but I was annoyed by the parson's insistent & clamorous protest against the dilapidation assessment for his late parish. The amount, £120, did not seem to me excessive in view of the increased price of materials & the rise in wages. It would certainly be the equivalent of no more than £50 five years ago. In this parish there is a lay–reader bearing the unattractive name Urry whose license is the cause of unending friction. The man is rather an unpleasant fellow to look at, and has a bullying manner. He is rougher & more uncultivated in speech & aspect then most men who are given a lay–reader's commission, & generally causes offence in the parish. The churchwarden told me that he ought not to be entrusted with such work & in short that the parishioners positively refuse to accept him!

[193] [symbol]

A note from the Vicar of All Saints informs me of his desire to introduce incense into his church at the next Festival of All Saints, and sending to me a form of Vespers for the dead for my approval!! He says that the members of his Church Council have asked him to do this. Now in dealing with this letter I must remember that there can be no question of prosecution for anything that will not carry the clear condemnation of the general conscience. This means that I cannot "bite his head off" as I wd dearly like to. Nor can I any longer stand frankly on the Law because I am already committed to the policy of 'Anarchy all round' as the only tolerable alternative to the self–respecting but impracticable course of enforcing the Law. I have just announced my willingness to sanction the preaching of non–Anglicans under the conditions of the Bishop of Norwich, which is certainly illegal under any conditions. It follows that I cannot stand merely on the Law. Nor, though in my heart of hearts I may know that this is the certain condition to which I must finally be brought, can I acquiesce in mere individualism. Some pretence of episcopal control must be made: some parade of administrative principles must be attempted. I, as Bishop, will 'acquiesce in' not sanction, any innovations which are (α) congruous with the mind of the Church of England as expressed in her standards and history, and (β) are not repugnant to the wishes of the mass of religiously–reminded parishioners.

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