The Henson Journals

[85]

Tuesday, June 12th, 1923.

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Visitation of the Darlington Rural Deanery

A bright deceiving morning led in a wet & blustering day. William motored me to Darlington in time for the Celebration in S. Cuthbert's at 8.30a.m. We breakfasted in a little cafe︠ not far from the Church. At 10.30 a.m. we returned to St Cuthbert's, where the Rural Dean read the Litany, and I addressed the clergy "devotionally". Then, through a deluge, we went to an Institute, & I addressed them on the Reform of the Marriage Law. They were interested but, did not say much: the Evangelicals through sheer ignorance of the whole subject; the "Catholicks" through fear of committing themselves! Then I lunched with a retired engineer named, I think, Storr, who was pleasant enough. After lunch I went to the Training College, & distributed prizes to the students. Sir Arthur Pease presided. After tea at the college I went to a house in S. Matthew's parish & confirmed a young woman bedridden. Finally, I addressed a large meeting of parish church councillors on the subject of Prayer Book Revision. They were attentive, and, I think, interested but they were not very eager to ask questions. The whole subject is new to them; they do not see why change I needed: nor have they any knowledge of the disorders which loom so large in the ecclesiastical life of the south. The mere notion of enforcing law on disobedient clergymen is alarming & repugnant: They are easily swept away by any irrelevant maundering about "charity"etc , while all the time they are extremely hostile to the illegalities themselves. We returned to Auckland after the service, arriving about 9.30 p.m.

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