The Henson Journals

[109]

Saturday, October 1st, 1927.

Lord Danesfort went away in the course of the morning. His objections to the new Prayer Book are both unreasonable & firmly held. I did what I could to remove them, but I am not confident that I succeeded.

I finished the Tynemouth Sermon. Ella took Bishop & Mrs Talbot for a drive after lunch, and I walked in the Park. There was a football match going on, and I talked with a goal–keeping youth named Thomas Gibbon. Harold Bryden came from the Lodge to hail me. He looked vigorous & happy. The Sanatorium at Wolsingham has justified its existence in his case. He hopes to be released in March, & then he is to be prepared for Confirmation.

I wrote to William. It is now more than 3 years since he left me, and he must be greatly changed. He is now 27 years old, and holds a position which carries an income of £420 per annum. If that position be secure, and carries promise of advance he cannot be said to have done badly. He never in any of his letters makes any reference to Religion and I suspect that, like the majority of his contemporaries, he has abandoned all outward profession of Christianity. It is strange, but to all seeming inevitable – his practical apostasy.

[110] [symbol]

The new bishop is a hearty stout man with a frank manner and a cheery smile. He has been a considerable football player in his day, and is irresistible with boys. He has always been popular, and more deservedly than is the case with most popular persons. I should judge him to be in his personal religion a very simple sincere Christian, unspoiled by enthusiasm or asceticism, who accepts the current system & "puts his weight" into every 'official policy'. He is more intelligent than intellectual, and his converse has been rather with men than with books. His long intimacy with the Archbishop of C. has probably affected his mental & moral development very considerably, & not altogether wholesomely: for his Grace, though an excellent Christian man, is an opportunist to the finger–tips. The new Bishop is whole–heartedly sympathetic with our post–War Churchmanship: believes unreservedly in the Enabling Act: & is enthusiastic about the "World Call". He assumes that the methods & ideals of the last generation when he was himself a beneficed clergyman in the diocese of Durham are still accepted: and he has before him the certainty of many disillusionments.