The Henson Journals

[89]

Friday, June 15th, 1928.

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Last night the Revised Prayer Book was again rejected by the House of Commons, 266 to 220. The speeches for the Book were good: those against it not so good. It is quite evident that the Protestant Underworld has been effectively stirred so that a "Non–Popery" tide is for the moment running strongly in the country. I had supposed that popular education and secularism had done more to make such an explosion impossible. But there is a great volume of resentment against 'Ritualism' which has been gathering strength for many years, and has now found expression. The non–conformist rank–and–file are gleefully drawing the sword for "the old cause": and the utter emptiness of the much advertised rapprochement between Anglicanism & Nonconformity has suddenly revealed itself. The vehemence of the feeling against the Bishops is, perhaps, somewhat surprising. It is probably increased by the "communistic" sentiment which is now widely distributed in the nation, & especially in the religious public. Notably this sentiment governs the extreme section of the "Anglo–Catholics", and unites itself with their determination to continue their revolt against every Anglican authority. The situation must be infinitely pleasing to the Papist and the Agnostic.

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I finished a sermon on 'Friendship' for the Freemasons of Spennymoor. Also, I motored to Durham, and presided over a meeting of the Religious Education Board, where I definitely vetoed the project of an Appeal for the elementary Schools. Then, I had tea with the Bishop of Jarrow, after which I interviewed five youths, who seek Diocesan Grants to aid them in preparing for Holy Orders:–

1. David Edward Davison from Blackhall.

2. Stephen Edward Pritchard from Craghead.

3. Thomas Frederick Hampton from Annfield Plain.

4. Alaric Pearson Rose from Greatham.

5. Malcolm Keir Ross from Stockton–on–Tees.

All five were under twenty years of age.

I do not suppose that one of these youths could be described as a gentleman. They all have received such education as they have in Secondary Schools: and all are altogether dependent on "assistance" for the expenses of their course at University. None of them except perhaps Ross seemed to me to give the impression of exceptional promise. I was interested to learn that I had myself confirmed three of the five, viz. Ross, Rose, & Davison.

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["]The rejection of the Measure would inaugurate a period of chaos, which period of chaos could only be corrected by disestablishment, and would probably not be corrected by disestablishment in any period which we could foresee. But there was a worse alternative than that, and that was the alternative that seemed to him to follow almost inevitably from a dispossession of the Church authorities from the control & guidance of their own spiritual affairs.["]

Mr Winston Churchill in the Debate on the Prayer Book Measure, v. Times. June 15th 1928.

["]If the Church of England were disestablished, the Home Secretary could no longer invoke the aid of people outside his own Communion to vote down the majority of members of his own Church. Was the Church of England, by the acknowledgment of the Home Secretary, to be regarded as the only Church in the world which was unfit for freedom and incapable of looking after its own doctrines?["]

Sir Robert Horne. Ibid.

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