The Henson Journals

[192]

Monday, July 3rd, 1922.

It is, perhaps, a 'sign of the times' that no ecclesiastical journal has asked for the ms. of my sermon on any one of the three occasions on which I have preached in London during the last 10 days. The secular papers give the readiest welcome to any vulgarity by which a preacher, however unimportant, may degrade the pulpit, but the gravest discourse by a preacher even though he hold great place in the hierarchy will be totally ignored. It is, I think, true that, as the Dean has said, the London newspapers are curiously provincial. They know the London clergy, but hardly anybody else. Thus any vapourings of Alexander may be reported, but not the pronouncement, however important of a preacher from the country. It is certainly the case that public interest in sermons has declined: that the social type of [192] church goer has fallen: that sermons are far less considerable productions than they were: and that the reading public prefers other provender than that of the preachers. Only a small fraction of the people now attends public worship, and their attendance is secured by transforming public worship into a secular entertainment thinly masqued by religious forms & phrases. The humble and dreary aspect of most of the lay members of the National Assembly is significant of the fact that they represent nothing more than the dwindling companies of elderly folk who still cling to the churches from which the young have fled.

[193]

July 3rd, 1922.

My dear Sir,

I cannot doubt that a loyal acceptance of the Law of the Church & State of England must always involve an acceptance of the interpretation of that Law by the constituted Courts. If those Courts appear to any man as defective in constitution & practice as to do violence to the Christian conscience, I do not see how he can accept Ordination or hold office in a Church which has no other. Every Anglican clergyman is free to think meanly of the legal system of the Church of England, & bound to exert himself by every morally legitimate means to improve it: but he is not free to disobey laws & legal decisions which do not require of him anything in itself sinful, however in his personal opinion undesirable.

The reform of the Courts must shortly be attempted, but it is highly improbable that any changes in the legal system, which the National Assembly & Parliament may agree upon, will be acceptable to everybody. On the assumption that men are morally free to disobey the laws they dislike, & to repudiate the decisions of the law courts, whose composition they disapprove, I cannot see how any society can cohere in any reasonable order. An independent National Church must find legal finality within itself, and that circumstance renders appeals to a "Catholic" system, legal & disciplinary, practically futile.

[194]

I believe the moral weakness of an ordained ministry which is immersed in sophistical explaining away of its formal & necessary obligations (professed & repudiated!) can hardly be exaggerated. A holocaust of preferences would be worth while if thereby the English clergy could recover self–respect.

Believe me, very faithfully yours,

Herbert Dunelm:

The Revd H. B. Walton.

Before leaving the Deanery I went upstairs and saw Paula. The child is wonderfully patient and sweet. I hope Ralph and Kitty will succeed in carrying her through this long trial for, if she live, her life will be gracious & serviceable beyond the common. I caught the 10 a.m. express from King's Cross, & arrived at Darlington at 3.55 p.m. Here Clayton & William met me with the car. Among the letters, which waited answer, was an insolently worded "protest" from Casey against my addressing the Methodists at their Circuit Conference. This is the fanatick who disturbed the service in Durham Cathedral when Dr Jowett preached there. He is an ex–Baptist, and an "Anglo–Catholick" of the narrowest type. The Bishop of Southwark has got into controversy with one of his clergy on the subject of admitting Dissenters to the Holy Communion.

[195]

July 3rd, 1922.

Dear Sir William Joynson Hicks,

Thank you for your letter. I do not suppose that the little sermon to which you make so kind allusion is likely to be published.

It is not probable, I apprehend that the Archbishop will consult me. Durham is a long way from Canterbury: & perhaps the tradition of St Cuthbert does not easily blend with the tradition of St Augustine! I agree with you in thinking that the case of single–church districts is particularly hard, but it is part of a practical paradox which is becoming too gross to continue. I don't know whether you have chanced to see the volume "Anglicanism" which Macmillans published for me a few months ago. There I have presented the situation as it appears to me, but I see no solution of the practical problem except disruption, and, as things stand with us now I fear that will follow, & not precede (and postpone) the disaster of disestablishment.

Believe me,

Sincerely yours,

Herbert Dunelm:

Sir W. Joynson Hicks Bt. M.P.

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