The Henson Journals

[29]

Thursday, December 22nd, 1927.

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^[paragraph strikethrough]^ I had some talk with Streeter, who arrived here on Monday. I asked him whether he would accept the Regius Professorship, if it were offered him, and he seemed disposed to answer in the affirmative. It appears that Mrs S. is an ardent Fundamentalist, and prefers promoting a Mission in Southern India to keeping house for a Modernist Spouse in Oxford!!

^[paragraph strikethrough]^ This is certainly an embarrassing circumstance. Streeter gave me rather a grave account of the morals of Oxford undergraduates. After the War there was certainly some amount of homosexual vice in certain colleges, but he had heard less of this during the las two years. On the other hand, the advent of the motor had nullified the parochial discipline. Many undergraduates had intercourse with women outside Oxford. He feared the collapse of sexual morality was extensive and increasing.

^[paragraph strikethrough]^ Lionel accompanied me to Stockton, where I preached t a small congregation in S. Paul's church. The fog rendered motoring tedious and unsafe: but we travelled without accident, and were back in the Castle about 9.30 p.m.

[30] [symbol]

Shall I, or shall I not, advocate Disestablishment as the necessary consequence of the rejection of the Revised Prayer Book by the House of Commons?

^[paragraph strikethrough]^ That fussing fellow, Sir James Marchant, forces me to answer the question by asking me to write a book on the Church's right to spiritual freedom, or some such subject, which raises the issue. If I do advocate Disestablishment, I shall seem to be going back on the most continues loyalty of my life. From the time when I founded the Laymen's League for the Defence of the Church forty one years ago, until the present hour, I have stood firmly for the historic connexion between Church and State. Why should I change ground now?

Certainly, if it seemed to me reasonably possible to avert the disaster in the near future, when it would come upon the Church in far worse circumstances, I would not do so; but as thing actually were, ought I not to complete a life of tergiversation by adding this loyalty also to the holocaust? After writing and speaking as I have done during the last two years, can I decently refuse to maintain at all costs (i.e. Disestablishment) the Church's right?