The Henson Journals

[56]

Saturday, July 24th, 1920.

We met in the crypt at Lambeth. After minutes & prayers I rose, & made a statement to the effect that I was discontented with the situation into which we were being carried; that the resolutions to which we had agreed were ambiguous, & could hardly fail to be misleading; that I could not let them go forth to the public without some indication of the fact that they were understood variously on the Committee, & only commanded general assent on that account. Finally, I was asked by the Archbishop of York to draft something in agreement, if possible, with the inevitable Zanzibar. There was a passage between me, & the Bishop of Winchester. Later in the day, I brought up the addition to the Report, which I desired to append, having secured the agreement of Zanzibar, & the approval of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Committee was distinctly hostile to it, having reached the dangerous mood of idolatry (i.e. worshipping the work of its own hands), & resentful of any suggestion that the Idol was imperfect! However, the Archbishop of York undertook to incorporate my addendum in the Report. [I am impressed more & more by the ineptitude of the Evangelical Bishops. They accept with raptures of thankfulness any tiny unimportant concession, and greedily surrender their principles in return. Partly it is their habitual immersion in cant, which makes them highly susceptible to emotional appeals: & partly their low level of knowledge & intelligence, which makes them slow to perceive a point, & unable to appreciate its importance.]

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