The Henson Journals
Sat 17 December 1921
Volume 31, Page 86
[86]
Saturday, December 17th, 1921.
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I completed my "charge", and interviewed the Ordination candidates. After lunch I motored into Durham, & attended a meeting of the Committee of the Finance Board, which had been appointed to select 4 candidates for the post of secretary. After this, I walked & talked with Archdeacon Derry, & then had tea with the Bishop of Jarrow, who was entertaining the Ordinands. I presided at the administration of the oaths &c, & then dined with the Dean. At 8.30 p.m. I delivered the "Charge" in the Deanery chapel, & then motored back to Auckland, where I arrived a few minutes after 10 p.m.
There was mighty tempest last night. Some birds, which had taken refuge in the chapel, disturbed the service by their shrill clamour.
The "Die–hards" in the House of Lords last night only mustered 47 in the lobby against 166: and in the House of Commons only 58 against 401. Thus the Irish "Treaty" is endorsed by the English Parliament. The decision of Dail Eirann is again adjourned.
Mostly my "charge" to the candidates dealt with the pledges which they took at Ordination, and the moral turpitude of breaking them. I spoke very plainly, warning them against the cunning sophistries by which the grossest departures from rectitude are among clergymen too commonly defended, and I dwelt on the impression which must necessarily be made on the minds of plain English laymen by the quite obvious discrepancies between the promises made by an Incumbent at his institution, & the Incumbent's behaviour in the parish church. I spoke of the duty of the assistant curate to be loyal to his incumbent, emphasising the necessity of learning the lesion that no man, not even the youngest, carries the burden of an universal responsibility. I ended by pointing out the immense difficulties of the time, and confessing that in ordaining men under existing conditions I felt like a commander sending his soldiers on a forlorn hope. I quoted S. Peter's language to the persecuted converts of Asia Minor as not wholly inapplicable to the case of men now being ordained to the Christian ministry.