The Henson Journals

[55]

Friday, July 23rd, 1920.

I walked to the Athenaeum, & there wrote letters. Then I went to Lambeth, & sate continuously on the Reunion Committee from 11.a.m. to 6.15 p.m. with brief intervals for lunch and tea. Things went badly on the whole. The return of the episcopal churches section of the Committee strengthened greatly the "Catholick" faction. [On the division to exclude the "reciprocity" paragraph from the projected appeal, the numbers were 33 against to 11 from exclusion. But the Liberal forces were as usual divided. The Bishops of Massachusetts and Uganda voted on the wrong side. We got to work on the draft of the Report after tea.]

[We dined with the Bishop of Madras in his hotel. Mrs Whitehead, her mother, & a young clergyman, her brother, (who was once one of Armitage Robinson's young men at Westminster). We talked "shop" for two hours, not very usefully, & so returned home. Mrs W. is rather a formidable lady, and suggests Mrs Proudie. Her husband is evidently well under control, & it is no extravagant surmise that she has been an important factor in shaping his ecclesiastical policy. She told me that she herself had preached in the Cathedral in Madras & that, not merely on special occasions to a congregation of her own sex, but to the general body of the faithful at the regular services. This argues a considerable audacity of innovation in the Church, and much marital complaisance in the Bishop. She spoke also with disconcerting frankness on the subject of parity.]

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