The Henson Journals

[170]

18th Sunday after Trinity, October 15th, 1922.

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The notion of writing "A grave Remonstrance on the present state of the Church of England" and addressing it to the Archbishop of York, occurred to me as I lay awake in bed this morning before being called. It would give me more elbow–room than a speech in Convocation, which of course it doesn't exclude. Something must, I think, be done, if I, and all who hold with me are not to be edged out of the Church, to the teaching and discipline of which we continue, almost alone of Churchmen, to hold. The surrender of the Bishops to the "Anglo–Catholic" movement threatens to make my position practically untenable. How long will it be possible for a single Bishop to administer a diocese on the principles of the Church of England when all or most of his brethren have accepted the "Anglo–Catholic" platform? The Mass and the Confessional in the parishes must needs create a type of churchmanship with which he would be so far out of touch that his spiritual rule would become an intolerable farce. How far is the complaisance of the bishops to be carried? Is the early age for confirmation to be conceded? Confirmation is the principal link between the Bishop and the laity. If it becomes a children's ministry, the value & significance of that link are destroyed, for the Bishop becomes as impersonal as the sacrament which he is said to be celebrating!

[171]

I celebrated the Holy Communion in the Chapel at 8 a.m. William communicated. Then I gave the final touches to my sermon for the Methodists of this parish. It is not very evident what good can come from preaching in Dissenting pulpits now that the Anglo–Catholics have adopted a policy of almost excessive civility to all sectaries. For after all, it is the Mass that matters, & if but the sectaries will allow that they at least don't possess that unum necessarium, it costs little to be civil!

I preached in the United Methodist Church at 10.30 a.m. on the occasion of the centenary celebration. The building was nearly full, and the congregation mainly consisted of men & women over fifty. This absence of the young from the services of Church & Chapel is a most disturbing feature of the time. Were those elderly people church–goers thirty years ago? Will the absentee youths be church–goers thirty years hence? It is a common observation that the ardent "Ritualist" of 20 often becomes the sceptick or indifferent of 30. Lang's much quoted, & much–applauded sentence in his Sheffield sermon. "Religion attracts: the Church repels" seems to me hardly ore that a half–truth, if indeed so much. Attacts whom? Repels whom? What Religion attracts? What Church repels? Ought Religion to attract? Must a Church repel? These & many other questions must be answered before the meaning, or the justice, or the value of the assertion can be determined.

[172]

I remained in my study during the afternoon, partly because I felt tired, and partly because I never care to exhibit myself in idleness in the Park on Sundays, when the townsfolk walk there in considerable numbers. Ella went with me to Durham, where I instituted Professor Guillaume to the Rectory of S. Mary–le–Bow. Coleman read the service: Moulsdale read the lessons: Budworth carried the staff: I preached. The sermon was a careful review of the conditions under which an Incumbent holds office in the Church of England, & included a clear statement that, if the Anglo–Catholic version of Anglicanism were indeed to prevail, the present subscriptions must be altered. Moulsdale's young men from St Chad's were present in some force. He will have the pious task of explaining, that is of course, explaining away his Bishop's opinions!! We had supper with the Cruickshanks. Rather to my regret I learn that a branch of the 'Churchmen's Union' is to be started in Durham. Knight of Houghton–le–Spring, with characteristic caution, has decided to have nothing to do with it. I entreated Cruickshank to be on guard against the "wild–cat" theories of the amateur criticks, who alarmed the faithful for no adequate cause. We motored home in a fog which made driving a difficult business. The journey which ordinarily takes half–an–hour, occupied no less than 50 minutes.

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