The Henson Journals

[104]

Monday, February 6th, 1928.

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Lionel went with me to Darlington where I took the early train to London, travelling in company with Mr Walter Tapper and his wife. The road was a sheet of ice on which the car skidded uncomfortably. Cuthbert Headlam and the Bishop of Jarrow were on the train, & came in to my carriage to talk to me. On arriving at King's Cross, I proceeded to the Club, which is now re–opened, & smells abominably of fresh paint. I went to the hair–dresser, & then drove to Westminster, where I was to be the guest of the Dean & Mrs Norris at the Deanery.

At 3 p.m. the Church Assembly opened its session. There was a very large attendance of members, and the general public crowded the galleries. We began with offering felicitations to the Archbishop, who completed 25 years of primacy that very day. Then, by what was really a gross abuse of the rules, the Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, under cover of a motion for adjournment, got in a speech against the Revised Measure, & was followed by Guy Rogers, [who canted in a sickening fashion]. The Archbishop of York protested, & after some fire–works from Lord Hugh Cecil, the House rose.

[105] [symbol]

The Archbishop failed to give a lead to the Assembly, and thereby increased very gravely the chances of a real disaster. It was one of those occasions on which opportunism fails. The life–long habit of "getting round" difficulties instead of facing them, hardly prepares a man for handling of a crisis. And the Church is now confronted by a crisis, the gravity of which can hardly be exaggerated. If the Assembly proceeds to amend the P.B. Measures, what can the Bishops do? If they accept the amendment, they will shipwreck the compromise which the Revised P.B. expressed, if they reject it, they add a dispute with the House of Laity to that which they have with the House of Commons. Their own declarations, and especially the Letters which the two Archbishops published before Christmas, make it impossible for them to accept any substantial alteration of the measure without a fatal loss of credit. The whole issue of the Church's spiritual independence has quite clearly been raised, and once raised, it cannot remain undecided. What was required from the English Primate was a firm & lucid declaration of principle. What was given by him was a hesitating suggestion that the Assembly should take its own course.