The Henson Journals

[52]

Tuesday, November 30th, 1920.

William and I continued work at the books. Miss Honeybun called to explain the present position of the Preventive & Rescue Association. The Bishop of Skära came to lunch together with the Vicar of Seaton Carew, with whom he has been staying. After lunch we went on with the books until tea–time, after which I dictated letters &c. until dinner.

The Bishop of Down urges me to reconsider my refusal to accept his invitation to preach in Belfast, but I am more & more disinclined to bind myself by pledges long in advance of the engagements concerned: and any proposal that involves crossing the sea needs no other title to my extreme dislike! I also, largely for the same considerations, declined a request from Sir Thomas Oliver that I would preach in Geneva next May to the Royal Institute of Public Health.

Loney of St James', Stockton writes to say that my sermon last Sunday night "was splendidly right for us all, & for others whom it will reach." I hope he is not mistaken. He adds: "Men seem inclined to respond to a leadership, brave & brotherly, that manifests sympathetic vision of their longing for a full manhood." Are they in the smallest degree likely to get that kind of leadership from the present Bishop of Durham? I doubt it.

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