The Henson Journals

[231]

6th Sunday after Trinity, July 23rd, 1922.

O lord Jesus Christ, the Chief Shepherd of the Sheep, give me the comfort and strength of Thy Presence this day as I go forth to preach in Thy Name to the People to whom Thou hast sent me. Grant that Thine own Spirit of sacrifice and sympathy may be in my heart, and may go forth from my lips in the Words that I speak, and may confirm the witness of Thy Servant in the consciences of Thy People. Grant this, O Saviour, I beseech Thee, Who with the Father & the Holy Ghost livest ever One God, world without end.

Amen

I celebrated the Holy Communion in the Chapel at 8 a.m. Brillioth and Frank Berry – the one a Lutheran, the other a Presbyterian – communicated. It is inconceivable that either the one or the other should have been rejected from the Communion which they desired.

Brillioth went with me in the car to Weardale, where I preached in the little parish churches of the two adiacents parishes. Eastgate and Westgate. Both Churches were crowded, &, I was assured, that the congregations included many Dissenters. In the afternoon we called on Shebbeare at Stanhope, and on Mr Hillyard, the Churchwarden of Eastgate, an amiable but melancholy bachelor, who owns much land in the neighbourhood. The day was cloudy, &, though there were some threatening of rain, rainless. We returned to Auckland after service, and arrived at the Castle about 9 p.m.

[232]

July 24th, 1922.

Dear Canon Green,

I am obliged to you for your letter. Of course you are entitled to make the most of the fact that many Bishops, whose personal beliefs are far from accordant with those aroused by "Anglo–Catholics", and who are strongly opposed to many "Anglo–Catholic" procedures, have thought it right to become Presidents and Vice–Presidents of "Anglo–Catholic" Conferences: & I do not resent your doing so.

I think it more honourable and more candid, certainly more agreeable with the obligations of my position, to refuse to appear to approve what I really regard with disagreement and distrust.

My letter declining to become a Vice–President of the A. C. Conference was written in answer to a request of the A. C. Secretary. It seemed to me that I could hardly say, No, without stating my reasons.

It is certainly not the case that at any time in my life have I held opinions or adopted practices similar to those now called "Anglo–Catholic". It is the case that until about the year 1892 I held the doctrine of Apostolic Succession, but (as I have stated publicly in the Preface of "Godly Union & Concord" published shortly after I came to Westminster) my experience at Barking had rendered me doubtful, and the considerable course of reading which I carried through during my semi–retirement at Ilford 1895–1900 definitely settled my mind against that view and its implications.

[233]

I have never at any time in my life been what is commonly called a "Ritualist", and the strong historic sense which has led me to support, to perhaps idealise, the National Establishment has always made me hostile to the policy of law–breaking which has marked the course of "Anglo–Catholicism".

Looking back over 35 years of ministry, what surprises me, & causes me sometimes a kind of consternation, is the rigidity of my theological and ecclesiastical positions. I come under the censure, to use a famous phrase, of being cast and not growing!

Be this as it may, the Anglo–Catholic movement and the present constitution of the Church of England are now so clearly inconsistent that the open denunciation of the latter is now "common form" with the advocates of the former.

Believe me,

Yours sincerely

Herbert Dunelm:

I wrote the above in reply to Canon Green's justification of his references to me at Preston. He quoted to the meeting in disproof of my authority the action of "the greatest number of the episcopate", dwelling with special satisfaction on the action of "that veteran Protestant, Watts Ditchfield" and the Bishop of Peterborough, "one of the hopes of Protestantism ever since he was at College". Of course there is no possible reply to this method of reasoning!

[234]

That kindest of men, J. G. Wilson, sends me a rug with a characteristic letter. "The rug was made from wool of sheep that ought to have been subject to your crook, & work at Otterburn".

I see an announcement that the Secretary of the Anglo–Catholic Conference to be held in Newcastle–on–Tyne is, for the Durham Diocese, the Revd Rowland Jones, S. Oswald's Vicarage, Durham. This young man was ordained to the deaconate by me in 1920, and to the priesthood in 1921. He had his title to St Aidan's, South Shields, but when a change of incumbency took place in that parish, I suffered him to come to Durham that he might have the opportunity of taking a degree. More than this. As he was very poor, I paid out of my own pocket his fees at S. Chad's College, & shall do so until his course is ended. I have had conversation with him, & warned against prematurely connecting himself with party organisations. He knows, as everybody knows, that I have refused to be Vice President of the A. C. Movement, and that I regard it with deep disapproval. None the less he yields to the influences which bear upon him at S. Chad's: he forgets what is due to his own bishop, and ignores the personal considerations which in his case might fitly have held him back from action which could not but be offensive to a benefactor, and does not scruple to come forward openly in opposition to me. That gives the measure of the authority which an English Bishop carries with his clergy when he crosses their preferences.

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