The Henson Journals

[112]

Monday, March 29th, 1920.

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A Congregationalist Minister, Rev. W. Lawson Forster, desires to be ordained in the Church of England. His uncle, an incumbent in the diocese of St Edmondsbury & Ipswich, wrote to commend him to me, and now he writes himself. He appears to hold an important position in his denomination, viz: that of minister of Chelsea Congregational Church: and he has hereditary links with Congregationalism. His uncle tells me that both the man himself and his wife have private means. This will certainly facilitate a favourable decision on my part: but, of course, it does not affect the main question. I told him to come & see me on Wednesday, the 9th April.

I took Goad for a walk by the river for an hour and 20 minutes. We talked hard, and were the better for it. He returned to town by the midday train. After lunch I motored to Shobdon, and there confirmed 41 candidates in the curious parish church, which resembles the Pavilion at Brighton. However its acoustics are excellent. On the whole the service pleased me. On returning to the Palace, I wrote to Prebendary Machen asking him to become Rural Dean of Condover in succession to Auden. Fawkeswrites to suggest the organisation of a counter–blast to the Anglo–Catholick Conference in the shape of a public meeting of moderate and Liberal Churchmen. I replied at once in the hope of nipping such folly in the bud. Fawkes is a child in ecclesiastical politics, and takes the falsest measure of forces and tendencies of any man of my acquaintance.

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March 29th, 1920.

My dear Fawkes,

I am quite clearly of the opinion that it wd be a grave mistake to emulate the tactics of the Anglo–Catholicks in organising meetings to impress the Lambeth Conference. Let them proceed with a policy of arrogant sectionalism. The more vehement & violent they are the better from the point of view of all who wish well to the Church of England, for the more apparent their disloyalty becomes, the more chance there is that they will be disowned by English Churchmen who are sincerely such.

It is, to my thinking, certain that any counter–blast wd be relatively too insignificant to be effective: & might be extremely mischievous as giving a wholly false impression. In any case I do not think a Bishop cd fitly take part in the proceedings. His office, if nothing else, suggests a wider rôle than that of a partisan. He cd not decently tie his hands by declarations in advance of the discussions at Lambeth. I am amazed at the folly of Bp of Salisbury in taking part as preacher in the Anglo–Catholick Conference, and I cannot understand how the Bp of London's "welcome" to that Conference can be sincere.

The clergy here generally report that their parishioners sign the roll–papers very willingly. Everything turns on the parson. If he is at the pains of explaining the situation to the people, they see the importance of being registered as Churchpeople. The difficulty will be in the towns.

Yours affnly

H. H. Hereford

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