The Henson Journals

[110]

S. Peter's Day, Monday, June 29th, 1925.

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Charles asked me last night when the power of coining phrases (which, he was pleased to say, I possessed in an eminent degree) had developed in me. I replied that I doubted of my possession of any special endowment of this perilous gift, and certainly was unconscious of ever coming to it at any particular time. We went on to talk of the phrase makers we had known, and he instanced Mahaffy, who lost the Provostship of Trinity to the far inferior man, Traill, simply through the resentment caused by his phrases! We discussed the comparative value, of an accurate memory and a sound judgement, and agreed that the two are rarely found together. I certainly do not possess the first; whether I possess the last in any uncommon degree I am doubtful. But I have an almost uncanny power of seeing to the heart of a practical problem, and summing up justly the forces & persons concerned. If Cassandra can be said to have had a sound judgement, then perhaps, I have as good a claim! But I am ill–placed for making the most of such power as I have. With the tendencies and objectives which now prevail in the religious world I am too much out of sympathy to have any effective influence. I dislike the tone, & hardly understand the speech of religious folk. Yet a Bishop is naturally assumed to be interested in religion, & religion for the most part of men is identified with the excitements, antipathies, and activities of the churches which exploit & profane it.

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Lord Stamfordham writes to bid me preach in the Private Chapel next Sunday, before going to the Chapel Royal.

I attended the commemoration of the 1600th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. It was a pompous & unaccustomed ceremonial. The choir were placed behind the High Alter, to which as they passed men & boys made reverence. The Gospel was read from the chancel step & the Gospellers faced to the North. Particularly noteworthy was the separate procession of the Sub–dean, who celebrated. The Archbishop of Canterbury preached a very appropriate and well–expressed sermon, after which the Nicaea creed was rehearsed in Greek by "His Beatitude, the Lord Photios, Patriarch & Pope of Alexandria". None of the Orthodox and but few of the Anglican Bishops received the Holy Communion. I was much impressed by the efficient "staging" of the service, but the question rose inevitably in my mind. Quo tendimus? What kind of religion will grow from this wasting emphasis on ceremonial? What effect on all these boys & youths will all this dressing, posturing &

prominence inevitably have? Are we not paying too high a price for the cautious & non–committed patronage of these cunning & greedy Easterus? The Archbishop of Dublin came in to lunch. In his diocese the age of Confirmation is 14, but tends to be lower. I went to the hair dresser, & then wrote letters at the Athenaeum. Then I had tea with Storr & talked with him for an hour over the situation in the Church.

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Storr thinks that the "Call to Action" has done its work. There may yet be a deputation to the Archbishop. He is finding the Evangelicals difficult, almost impossible, allies. They are mostly "Fundamentalists", & would gladly burn their Liberal colleagues for unsound views on the Bible! He is disposed to think that an open breach between the conflicting parties cannot be much longer averted. I suggested that he and his friends should insist upon the Bishops debates on Prayer Book Revision being public, so that every Bishop might be forced to declare himself, and the votes might be weighed as well as numbered.

Charles became very communicative, and told me a long tale of the neglect & worse to which the canons had been exposed under the government of Bishop Kyle. The appeal for the Abbey which, through the powerful aid of Lord Northcliffe, was so greatly successful was issued without consultation with the canons, & was drawn up by the Dean and minor canons. The canons first heard of it when they saw it in the newspapers. This does certainly seem a high–handed procedure. Similarly, the notable development of ceremonial in the services had been pushed forward by the minor canons with the connivance of the Dean, & in defiance of the protests of the Chapter. Therefore, although the canons regarded the Dean with the affection which his lovable character could not fail to evoke, yet they felt that he had ruled with little regard to the custom and constitution of Westminster Abbey.

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