The Henson Journals

[189]

Wednesday, March 24th, 1926.

It may not always be to the advantage of the Church that so much Church property is also national property: but the fact has to be faced, and the rights of parishioners, of the City and of the nation, which takes its pride in the City and its monuments are not imaginary, but can be defended with cogency and reason.

v. The Times. March 24th 1926. "City Churches."

This article on the Union of Benefices & Disposal of Churches (Metropolis) Measure is conceived in a very different spirit from that which inspired the Article on the rejection of the Shrewsbury Bishoprick Measure.

N.B. For Suffrigan [sic] Bishops see the Following:

Phillimore's Ecclesiastical Law.

Gibson's Codex.

Stubbs. Reg: Sac: Angl: p.142

Hardwick. Ch. Hist: Middle Age.

p.238 note on Bps in partibus

Makower. Const–Hist of C. of E. p.309f.

For their prominence in the Vatican Council see

Sparrow Simpson "Papal Infallibility"

Pomponio Leto "Eight months in Rome."

[190]

I wrote letters, & worked at the annotations of my speech in the House of Lords for the Bishoprick. Also after lunch, I wrote to Ernest of Worcester saying that the puppy was now ready to travel.

I left the Castle at 5.20 p.m., and motored to Seaham Harbour, picking up Lionel in Durham on the way. There were 220 candidates for Confirmation from several parishes. Before the service I examined 3 boys who who were under 14 from Duncan's parish. They seemed woefully ignorant, and even Duncan could evoke very little. Finally I consented to confirm them on the understanding that they were not admitted to the Holy Communion until Christmas, & were further instructed. But I was unpleasantly impressed by the kind of questions which Duncanput to them, & which, of course, disclosed the range & character of their "preparation." The one matter on which the candidates were instructed was the Altar, & the instruction was marked by the crudest simplicity. They certainly could not say "The Creed, The Lord's Prayer, & the Ten Commandments" in the vulgar tongue: & certainly had only been "further instructed" in the Church Catechism so far as that formulary gave a foundation for the crude sacramentalism which had been drilled into them.

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