The Henson Journals

[81]

Thursday, January 26th, 1928.

Lionel went with me to Darlington, where I took the early train to London, & travelled with a carriage to myself. The Times contained a letter from the Bishop of Middleton suggesting action by the Church Assembly in the direction of amending farther the Revised Book. This I must needs think [ would be a grave blunder. Yesterday the Times published letters from Headlam and Temple, both rather unwise because likely to confirm the House of Commons in its prejudices. On arriving in town I left my bags in Park Lane, and went on to the hairdresser, and then to the Club. Here I had some talk with both the Newbolts, the diocesan Chancellor and the Patriotic Poet. Both expressed the utmost horror of anything that could suggest or imply an acceptance of Disestablishment. They will be properly scandalized when they read my Cambridge sermon. Romer, the Editor of the Nineteenth Century & After wrote to give me permission to include in my projected volume the article published in his journal last June under the sinister title, "The Passing of the National Churches". I sent him a note of acknowledgement.

[82]

It has been apparent for some while that the character of the Church of England as both an Established National Church and a member, the principal member, of the federation of Churches, all non–established or disestablished, which forms the Anglican Communion throughout the world, has become very difficult to maintain. For while all the other Anglican Churches are fully autonomous. the Church of England, as the House of Commons has demonstrated, is firmly held to a confessedly unsatisfactory system not only by the rigid bonds of law, but also by the persistent prejudices of the non–Anglican population. The limitation of the liberty of the English Bishops is both apparent & embarrassing. It cannot but affect the discussions & decisions of the Lambeth Conference, in which for obvious reasons they must exercise considerable influence. The removal of this anomaly would be one consequence of Disestablishment which the thoughtful English Churchman will welcome, though the Church of England will have to say with chief Captain, [83] ''With a great sum obtained I this liberty'. In so far as Establishment embodies and perpetuates insularity it hinders the efficiency of the English Church, For insularity has been the distinctive weakness of English Churchmanship since the Reformation; and the circumstances of modern life have emphasized its gravity. The nation has long–outpassed the narrow confines of the island–kingdom, and grown into an imperial race, owning and fulfilling world–wide responsibilities. Can the National Church, in system and temper, remain insular? From yet another side change has come, & must be recognized and provided for.

The last century has witnessed a notable development of historical studies, and the extension of knowledge to the masses of the people. The result has been nothing less than a revolution of religious feeling. No special sanctity any longer attaches to the religious verdicts of the XVIth century. The Reformation is seen to be no more than a local episode in the history of Christ's religion, and the [84] post–Reformation Epoch makes no more than a chapter of the great record. English folk look with an interest more sympathetic and more intelligent on the medieval church, of which the artistic and architectural achievements are now universally regarded as the Nation's choicest treasures. The ravages of Reformers and Puritans are more often execrated as the excesses of fanaticism than admired as the fruits of religious zeal. Ritual, vestments, and ceremonial are no longer as offensive to the English conscience as they once were. There has been a change of taste. The naked severity of Protestant worship is repulsive to modern notions of seemliness. Insular Christianity is felt to be a contradiction in terms. At all hazards modern English Christians will be Catholic, claiming as their own the entire heritage of historic Christianity. This revolution of religious feeling has told disastrously on the discipline of a Church which has had to make shift with formularies and rubricks which were framed to express the thoughts and meet the needs [85] of the XVIth and the XVIIth centuries. The interval has been marked by amazing intellectual progress which has had effect on the theology of the Churches. The Thirty–nine Articles, composed in the middle of the XVIth century, remains the standard of Anglican faith. "Cracked & strained by three centuries of evasive ingenuity" that venerable standard has little value as a statement of belief or as a protection against error. The necessity of modernizing the formularies of the Church of England is obvious. Thus an ideal Revision of the prayer Book would have a twofold character. On the one hand, it would recover the treasures of ancient piety – which were lost in the storms of the Reformation: and on the other hand it could appropriate the treasures of knowledge which the Masters of Science have brought to the modern world. The Revised Prayer Book, which the House of Commons rejected so summarily, was a serious attempt to realize this ideal. It did recover much: it did appropriate much. As much of both as the general opinion of the Church of England would approve. Its rejection could be a calamity of the first magnitude.

[86]

I dined in Park Lane. There was a pleasant party consisting of the following:

Lord Cromer & his wife

Lord Ullswater & his wife

Mr Chichester

Lady Pole Carew

Lady Milner

The Bishop of Durham

Lord Scarbrough & his wife.

Lady Ullswater gave me a vivid account of midnight mass on Christmas Eve in All Saints, Margaret Street, which she attended.

Lord Cromer spoke of Sir Arthur Harding, under whom he had served in Teheran. He ascribed his comparative failure to two causes viz: his injudiciousness of speech, and his wife. Of both he gave me some surprising illustrations.

Lady Cromer reminded me that I had married her in S. Margaret's. She was the daughter of Lord Minto, and impressed me as charming, intelligent, and good. She had heard my speech in the House of the Lords on the Prayer Book.

---