The Henson Journals

[97]

15th Sunday after Trinity, September 25th, 1927.

Churchmen believe the Church to be a religious society as much so as a congregational body, as much so as the Roman Catholic body. It has also become in England an Established Church; but it has not therefore ceased to be a religious society, with principles and laws of its own. We have inherited an anomalous state of things, in which the logical inconsistencies show the traces of our keen & repeated struggles; but like other Englishmen, we put up with many anomalies which have come down to us.

Dean Church to G.W. Russell Esq. M.P. April 2nd 1881

[inset] N.B. I quoted this passage in the H. of L. when speaking on the Revised Prayer Book, Dec. 14th 1927. H.D.

I celebrated the Holy Communion in the Chapel at 8 a.m. We numbered 8 communicants, including Lady Eden and Penelope.

After breakfast I revised a sermon on Religion and Education for use at Spennymoor, and wrote a brief & brutal letter to the Editor of the Durham County Advertiser anathematising the pretentious scheme for transforming Durham into a commercial centre. The very suggestion is abhorrent.

[98] [symbol]

I walked in the Park before lunch. Two miners showed me two coins which they had picked up, as they said, in the Park. I bought them for eighteen pence. One was a George III penny, of no particular interest; the other was a 25 sous piece with the inscription 'Louis XVI Roi des François, 1791. On the side has the date 'L'an 3 de la Liberté'. It may have belonged to one of the French prisoners who worked on the road at Houghton–le–Spring.

Ella and Lady Eden accompanied me to Spennymoor, where I preached at Evensong. My sermon was designed for School Teachers, of whom (as I was assured) about 100 were in the congregation. They had been having what they call a 'Refresher Week', and the attendance in Church was a polite attention to Religion, which they thus 'bowed out' of their work! The Church was well filled, &, of course, the atmosphere was asphyxiating. But the attention was close, & my M.S. was asked for by the Reporters! We returned to Auckland in pouring rain. Lionel was preaching at St Anne's, and Ernest at Stillington. This is, I suppose, Ernest's last Sunday in the diocese. The experiment of a "diocesan Chaplain" will not lightly be repeated.