The Henson Journals

[80]

Conversion of S. Paul, Wednesday, January 25th, 1928.

I ordained Bernard Wilson, to the diaconate in the Chapel. The students of St Chad's College provided the choir, & the Principal sang the Litany. Instead of a formal sermon, I myself gave a brief extemporaneous exhortation. The service was reverent enough, save for a disaster to the Pastoral Staff, which crashed on to the marble pavement, and was broken. Linnell & Westcott were among the communicants.

Brooke walked round the Park with me. On my return I wrote a number of letters including one to Lord Phillimore asking him to comment on the Dean of Westminster's supposition that we should be further enslaved rather than enfranchised by Disestablishment.

The Duchess of Atholl, after visiting the female Training College in Durham, came here to dine and spend the night. She spoke of the Prayer Book, and said that a factor making the Scottish members vote against it was their dread of Roman Catholic influence in Scotland due to the great immigration of Irish. The more closely the working of Establishment is examined, the less tolerable it appears.