The Henson Journals

[117]

Saturday, June 4th, 1927.

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The front page of the Times prints a letter from Earl Grey making another appeal for Funds with which to educate men for the ministry. He states that the working clergy have fallen from 21,000 to 16,500 within the last few years: and says that there is a list of no less than 150 "picked men" from every public school in England whose training is "held up" for lack of funds. I wonder what amount of truth there is in the statement. Such candidates to not come within the range of a Northern Bishop's view: mostly we are confronted by the sons of ^the^ lower middle class and upper artisan folk, "educated" mostly in the Secondary Schools, but often only in the schools that are called "Elementary', in either case being really not educated at all: & they do not impress me as being the ablest of their kind, often, indeed apparently the weakest, whose "vocation" has come to them by the insistent suggestion of "priests" as humbly–born & illiterate as themselves, who have made them "servers", "boat–boys", "thurifers", & "candle–carriers" in their lawless services! Meanwhile, the shortage of the clergy continues & grows greater. In the Yorkshire Post yesterday there appeared a statement to the effect that in the diocese of Bradford there were now 10 vacant benefices, having an average income of £425, for which clergymen, suitable for appointment, cannot be found. There will be a similar situation within the Diocese of Durham very soon: & the derelict parishes are not merely the little rural cures, but mostly the crowded industrial parishes where "amenities" and "prospects" – the two conditions of clerical "vocation" – are completely unsatisfactory!! Quo tendimus?

[118] [symbol]

I motored into Durham, and lunched with Wilson, his son Gerald and his daughter–in–law Josephine, in 38 Old Elvet. The said daughter–in–law has reached the age of 31 today. She is an Australian, and has been trained as a nurse. She is vivacious, intelligent, and rather attractive than handsome. Her speech is marked by a colonial accent, & her manner has the conciliating frankness which marks the habit of nurses. On the whole she pleased me, and I am disposed to think that Gerald Wilson has done well for himself.

The afternoon post brought the proof of my Glasgow lecture which is to appear as an Article in next month's "Nineteenth Century & After" under the title, "The Passing of National Churches". It reads rather sadly, & may indicate to anyone who cares sufficiently about the subject to read it, that I have moved away from the old position (which I have maintained for more than 40 years) of a thorough–going champion of Establishment. But the arrival of "Labour" to the seats of political power has transformed the situation.

Mrs Murray of Murraythwaite arrived in her motor about 5.30 p.m. with the object of breaking her journey to Scotland. She said that on her way from London she had passed no less than five motor–smashes. The "butcher's bill" for Whitsuntide bids fair to be a heavy one.

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