The Henson Journals

[38]

25th Sunday after Trinity. November 13th, 1921.

O Lord Jesus Christ renew in me by thy Holy Spirit the sense and conviction that Thou hast indeed chosen and commissioned me to be thy messenger and the steward of thy mysteries. Take away from my love of thy people everything that conflicts with my love for thee, and make possible for me a ministry which thou will own and bless. Forgive, O holy Master, all my sins against thee, and against thy children. Let thy mind be mine, thy strength enable my weakness, thy purity cleanse my foulness: and give me in thy mercy some share in thy joy. Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit art one God, blessed for evermore.

Amen.

I went to S. Columba's at 8 a.m., and there celebrated the Holy Communion. The service, which followed honestly the order prescribed in the Prayer Book, was very comforting, & the communicants, who numbered about 40, seemed to be devout. I used the collect for the 6th Sunday after Epiphany as ordered by the rubrick. The weather was fine but bitterly cold. Stephenson & I discussed the question of curates. He pointed out that the extreme difficulty of housing married curates was not so much a consequence of the general shortage of houses, as the expression of the change in the social quality of the curates themselves. Within his memory (which is 8 years shorter than mine) there had been a complete reversion of the normal order. Then men – took their degree, were ordained, & married generally after some years as curates. Now men are married, ordained, & (sometimes) take their degree. They come from a class in which marriage commonly takes place in the early twenties: no more, as formerly, from the class which rarely marries under thirty.

William motored us to the Town Hall at 10.15 a.m., where I joined the mayor in a kind of reception. Then a procession to the Parish Church was formed. The mayor's mace–bearer & Clayton, both bearing their respective Symbols, preceded the mayor & myself, & we were preceded & followed by a great number of men. The church was crowded, & everything went well enough save that my sermon was too heavy & too long. We returned in process ion through crowded streets to the Town Hall, where I was formally thanked for [39] my sermon & we all dispersed to our homes. Considering the great number of unemployed men in the town, I was on the whole relieved by the respectful demeanour of the crowd. We lunched at the rectory, & then William motored Clayton & me to Boldon, where I confirmed about 80 candidates, & dedicated a memorial tablet to some local folk. We returned to the Rectory, & then, while I was reading over my sermon, Ellwood, the Vicar of St Chad's came to beg me to "look in" at his church, where a mission was proceeding. S I motored thither, addressed the congregation which filled the church, and blessed the Missioners who were Mirfield fathers. I came back directly to St Cuthbert's, where I preached to a crowded congregation amidst volleys of coughs! The sermon was unsuitable: the preacher was fatigued: the congregation was puzzled and bored! After service Gadd, the Vicar, asked whether I should object to his inviting the Congregational Minister to preach in S. Cuthbert's. I replied that a formal request must be sent to me from himself & his churchwardens. We motored back to the Castle, and arrived about 9.30 p.m.

The thought of that woeful man, Dawson, hangs over me like a cloud. If, he were to starve, there would be a great scandal; yet how to maintain him is an insoluble problem. He is evidently an incorrigible mendicant: he has no shame, and no conscience, in contracting debt. But none the less, he is an ordained clergyman of the Church of England! He has the benefit of that description, though truly in his case it doesn't hold true in hardly a single particular. For his record seems to indicate that for years before he sought Ordination in the Church of England he had been cadging with a black coat for his professional instrument. If he were unmarried, his personal fortunes would not greatly matter, but he has a wife and three children to share his fate: & they are a highly embarrassing factor. But the practical question remains unanswered. What employment is within his reach? Clearly, I cannot sanction his taking work as a clergyman, for every shopkeeper would, as a matter of mere justice, to be warned against giving him credit. His burden of debt makes the possibility of his earning a sufficient maintenance almost impossible. He could only leave the district by some method of furtive "flitting". Who can fairly be asked to pay his debts in order to re–start him in mendicancy?

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