The Henson Journals

[32]

Rogation Sunday, May 13th, 1928.

I celebrated the Holy Communion in the Chapel at 8 a.m. Old Chancellor Smith read the Epistle, & ministered the Chalice. We numbered 9 communicants including our four guests.

I spent the morning in writing a sermon for the evening.

Lord Londonderry and Robin came to lunch. He was extremely pessimistic as to the prospects of the Prayer Book. The pressure of constituents on their members was, he thought, almost wholly against the Book.

I motored to Hamsteels, and preached at Evensong. The little church was densely crowded, & the atmosphere was deadly. There appeared to be no possibility of ventilation. The result was that I could not preach even tolerably, and my sermon, on which I had bestowed no inconsiderable pains, was a total failure. I called the attention of the parson & churchwardens to the need for some system of ventilating the church, but they clearly thought I was making an unnecessary fuss! I returned to Auckland after the service, & found that James Parker–Smith had retired to bed with a suspicion of bronchitis, and that Dr Cecil McCullough was in attendance.