The Henson Journals

[263]

Friday, April 8th, 1921.

'When he realised that taking Holy Orders in the Church of England would hamper his freedom of action in regard to Christians of other denominations & would impose restrictions & limitations on his sphere of Christian work, he decided not to proceed to the Diaconate & at the same time returned his license to Bishop Lefroy.'

"The Sadhu" p 19

This is not pleasant reading. Evidently the Sadhu was quick to 'take the measure' of our "Catholicism"! "I was told" he replied to those who enquired his exact motive in giving up his license, "that if ordained in the Church of England I could not preach in other Churches, though I could speak in the schools & colleges of other Christians". It is not surprising that he found us rather unintelligible. "The children of God", he said, "are very dear but very queer. They are very nice but very narrow". We learn that he is "at home" among Christians of all denominations. "Now he stays with High Anglicans who attend daily Mass, now with Nonconformists who celebrate the Lord's Supper only occasionally." He receives the Sacrament frequently and "gets great benefit from it", but "the sense of the presence and companionship of the Living Christ is his, quite independently of participation in the Eucharist". I suspect that the eager exaltation of the Sadhu by our "Anglo–Catholicks" will receive a sharp check from Streeter's account of him.

[264]

The morning papers are a shade less gloomy than last night's reports led us to expect, but the situation remains in the highest degree sinister, obscure, and menacing. An eclipse of the sun shed "disastrous twilight" over the earlier hours of the morning and a thick mist covered the country. Streeter sent me his little book on this Indian saint, about whom there has been so much talk in religious circles; and I took occasion in thanking him for his gift, to ask him to be one of my examining chaplains. The papers give great prominence to the appeal of Archdeacon Wakeford. I motored into Durham, and fetched out Headlam and his bags.

The Revd Joseph Shores came to see me. For 17 years he has been doing nothing more than "Sunday duty", living in Darlington mainly on his wife's income. But this having become inadequate through the badness of the times, he demands a living. He exhibited two letters addressed to him by Bishop Moule, from which it appears that he had approached my sainted predecessor & received from him assurances, which he interpreted as specific promises of preferment. He went off in a high state of indignation because I flatly refused to make him any kind of promise, and told him that he ought to take an assistant curacy, & "make good", before he dreamed of getting appointment to a benefice. He declared his intention of "leaving the Church of England"!!

[265]

Clayton and I motored to Crook, and there I dedicated four windows, and preached. The parson, Revd J. R. Barker, thanked me for my letter about Easter Offerings. He said that he had received more than £50 from his Churchwardens. This is good to hear. Headlam has sound notions on ecclesiastical finance. He is opposed to the surrender of the great episcopal houses, & favours a separation between the official and the personal expenditure of bishops. Thus, the dilapidations, chaplain, Office expenses, motor car, and judicial expenses would be severed from the bishop's private income. With respect to the latter, whether it be large or small, I am insistent that it must be the bishop's own, nowise subject to the over–sight of others. The notion so dear to the Bishops of London and Lichfield that Bishops are impersonal entities with no rights, no feelings, and no personal life, is quite disgusting to me, and, I am persuaded, has no kind of attractiveness to any man worthy the name.

I wrote to George. Mrs Headlam, detained by the delays caused by dislocation of the train–service, did not arrive at Darlington until 10.30 p.m. Headlam met her there with the car, and they arrived at the Castle before 11.30 p.m. Fearne, vice Ella, received her, & did the duties. She brought a whole budget of rumours, mostly alarmist and mutually contradictory. It appears to be certain that no way out of the deadlock has yet been found.

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