The Henson Journals

[137]

Tuesday, February 20th, 1923.

The Convocation began with a choral celebration of the Holy Communion in the Minster at 10 a.m. All the Bishops (except the Bishop of Chester) communicated, though none were fasting. This might, perhaps, go to show that Anglo–Catholic convictions are not strong on the Bench! We voted the Address to the King after making some small amendments. Then we talked about patronage on the motion of the Bishop of Manchester. There being nothing more on the agenda, I returned to Auckland, being met by Clayton and William at Darlington, and motored to the Castle through a snow–covered country.

The Bishop of Liverpool gave me a type–written copy of a memorandum drawn up (if I understood him correctly by Sir Thomas Inskip, the Solicitor General), and indicating the attitude taken up by Evangelicals towards Prayer–Book Revision. It distinguishes between the proposals which modernize and make additions to some of the services, and the changes suggested in the Communion Service .

"We therefore invite all, who are satisfied with the doctrinal basis of the exisiting Office, and who think that the Service is such as the whole Church may fitly use, to resist any alteration lest we fall into error, and into a greater accentuation of our differences."

The immediate danger, however, is a perpetuation of the existing situation in which the Anglo–Catholics are winning 'hands down'.

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