The Henson Journals

[50]

Tuesday, December 19th, 1922.

The Bishop of Ely returns to the charge in today's "Times" but he merely reiterates his former statements, and does not meet my argument at all. I think this is so obvious that there is no necessity for me to notice his letter.

I played bowls with William for an hour, and then the Ordination candidates began to arrive. There are but seven – 3 deacons & 4 priests.

viz. Percy Nigel Warrington Strong, B.A. Cambridge aged 23

Edward Taylor, A.K.C. aged 23

Thomas Petijean, aged 31, married

John Posnett Boden, B.A. Durham, aged 28

Henry Ernest Pinnington, L.Th. Durham, aged 36, married

George Suthrien, B.A. S. John's, Durham, aged 27

William Wright, B.A. Cambridge, aged 36

Petijean and Pinnington are legacies from my predecessor's regime .

The former is universally recommended for the goodness of his life and the earnestness of his pastoral work: the latter is so obsessed with the inconveniences of his house and the narrowness of his income that it seems almost ludicrous to speak to him about reading. What will these two men have become in the course of the next 10 years, by which time they should be fit for appointment to incumbencies? What competence does either of them possess for more than the humblest tasks of the clergyman's life? Will not both be "too old at forty"?

[51] [symbol]

A horrible day – fog, rain, and boisterous wind. I celebrated the Holy Communion in the Chapel at 8.15 a.m. After breakfast I settled to work on my "charge" to the candidates, and finished it in the afternoon. Cruickshank and Moulsdale arrived at tea–time, and then I had interviews with the candidates separately. On the whole I was pleased with them. They are very evidently devout, and, though none of them is conspicuously able, there are none who are obviously unfit to be ordained. At Evensong I delivered the "charge" which I had written earlier in the day.

Canon Wykes wrote to tell me "how our church folk were affected by your words on Sunday night" .

"Dozens of the men & lads had been out of work for nearly two years, some were in the choir, others were Church officers, some were among the collectors on Sunday night, & you interpreted their feelings as though you had shared their experience. Sometimes they cannot come to Church, hindered by shame, because boots & clothes are too shabby. Sometimes brothers have had to take turns in wearing the only available 'best suit'."

I remember putting in a few sentences about unemployment in the course of my preaching. Apart from this extemporaneous interpolation the discourse, so far as I was able to judge, made little or no impression on the congregation.

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