The Henson Journals

[184]

Quinquagesima, March 2nd, 1924.

I left the Castle at 9.30 a.m., and motored to Norton where I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion. After lunching with the Vicar, Canon Scott, I returned to Auckland.

I motored to Hunwick, and preached at Evensong to a congregation which did not fill the little parish church. It was explained to me that a "Mission" in one of the local chapels had drawn the people away from the parish church! These incessant "missions" will be the destruction of all serious religion in the diocese. But what a revelation this is of the actual situation into which we have come! The time was when the advent of the Bishop into a parish would have been an event of great & general concern. It would have emptied the chapels. But, perhaps, this was never the case in these mining districts where the Church is a late arrival and the established religion is Nonconformist. The very aspect of the fabrics attests the fact. For while the parish churches are very often mean & pinched the Nonconformist chapels are substantial and commodious. We must add that the social & educational quality of the Anglican clergy is hardly superior to the buildings in which they minister. The Nonconformist ministers are often better educated, and of a stronger type. Yet Nonconformity itself is religiously stricken, and, if the Church could seize its opportunity, it might win the people.

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