The Henson Journals

[35]

Monday, October 29th, 1923.

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The Bishop–designate went off at 10.30 a.m. Before his departure I had a final talk with him. I warned him against the ruin of most evangelical Evangelicals – an unthinking acquiescence in procedures intrinsically indefensible, by which they gained the adulation of "Anglo–Catholicks", but not only forfeited their liberty of action but also damaged their credit. His own bishop, Peterborough, was a luminous illustration of this.

I celebrated the Holy Communion in Carissima's room. Then I "mooned away" the time in my room, to which the rain confined me. The fatigues of yesterday disinclined me for serious work, but the triple preaching of next Sunday disgusted me with frank idleness!

Jimmie Dobbie came to see me in the course of the afternoon. He is an affectionate lad, & my connexion with him when he was a choir boy at Durham & when I was Dean seems to have left a great impression on his mind. Then he dreamed of taking Holy Orders, but his intention evaporated before the insistence on regular Confession which he encountered at his Confirmation. He is evidently much attached to Canon Wykes & St Andrew's, Spennymoor. I was foolish enough to yield to his request for a photograph! After his departure I tried to put together some notes for the Westminster Sermon, but with very slight measure of success.

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