The Henson Journals

[167]

Friday, October 13th, 1922.

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I wrote a sermon for the Sectaries, and played bowls with William. Also, having heard from the Bishop of St David's that the Bishop of Monmouth was contravening the Constitution of the Church in Wales by his fantastick ceremonial at the Ordination on St Matthew's Day, I addressed a letter to the Times on the subject under the heading, "The Use of Monmouth".

The author sends me a substantial volume. "Shaken Creeds: the Virgin Birth Doctrine, a Study of the Origin by Jocelyn Rhys" (Watts & Co). I should hardly have ^thought^ that, at this time of day, that particular form of attack was worth making.

A certain Canon Bell is reported to have said at the church Congress that "a frank, unrestrained, and unashamed sacramentalism was the only medium through which religion ever had made or ever could make a general and catholic appeal to human nature". Bishop Chandler followed with the statement that "the church's system was summed up in the sacraments, or sacramental rites, of Confession, Unction or Laying on of hands, and Communion". If this be indeed the case, the Prayer Book must be a curiously unsatisfactory manual for Anglican guidance, for save in the case of the sick man, no provision is made for Confession, Unction is conspicuous by its absence, & the Communion is normally to be received three times in the year!

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