The Henson Journals

[115]

Thursday, July 12th, 1923.

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I attended the National Assembly, and made a short speech against the Winchester Bishoprick Measure, which was none the less carried by a large majority. So far from the extravagances of the Anglo–Catholic Congress provoking any resentment, the general attitude towards them is one of indulgent & half–sympathetic acquiescence. Have I been living in a fool's Paradise about the Church of England? Has the War really effected so revolutionary a change in English Religion that Protestantism is now definitely repudiated? The Establishment has no friends at all in the National Assembly, and disestablishment is not so much regarded with indifference as actually wished for. So profound is the public indifference to all Anglican affairs that I doubt whether a general adoption of the Latin Mass would provoke any excitement save among the illiterate fanaticks who follow the younger Kensit. The churches are empty, or attended only by those who like what goes on within them. Law, and the sense of obligation to Law, have perished from the religious mind. In such a situation the position of an English Bishop is, indeed, beyond description, pitiable. He is still welcomed as an addition to the pageantry of lawless worship: but only on the understanding that he accepts that character, and refrains from any exercise of authority.

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