The Henson Journals

[186]

Thursday, August 9th, 1928.

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A bright but uncertain morning, gusty and by no means warm.

After breakfast Ella and Fearne went off in the motor to Carlisle to see the pageant and stay the night at Rose Castle.

The newspaper announces the appointment of the 2 new bishops – Canon H. A. Wilson goes to Chelmsford, & Principal Seaton from Cuddesdon goes to Wakefield. These are, on the whole, good appointments, though the retirement of Seaton from Cuddesdon will transfer from Durham to Wakefield the slender stream of Ordination candidates, which seemed to be taking a definite direction to the See of S. Cuthbert. I wrote to both the newly nominated Bishops.

After lunch I walked to the top of an adjacent hill, which, though indeed of no great altitude, cost me much effort. But I was rewarded by magnificent views.

The Times publishes, under the heading 'Church and State', a characteristic letter from Ld. Wolmer, which begins thus:

"The declaration by the Bishop of Durham in favour of Disestablishment is certainly ominous."

But I have made no such declaration. All I have said is that the Establishment must be either mended, or ended. The mending I doubt, the ending I dread.

[187] [symbol]

Against the perverted expressions of these two factors – the traditional & the progressive – the Apostolic character of the Church must provide protection. Papalism & Modernism may be justly interpreted as excessive developments, the one of the idea of Tradition, the other of the idea of Progress. The appeal against both lies to the Apostolic Version of the original Gospel. How far can Papalism, & Modernism, demonstrate their agreement with that norm of essential Christianity? With respect to the first, the question was asked & answered in the XVIth century. The Reformers of the Church of England definitely disallowed the Papal claims as conflicting with the New Testament. Today, after nearly 4 centuries of controversy, that verdict holds the field. With respect to the last, the question is being asked with increasing insistence, & the Church of England cannot repudiate the obligation to answer it. How far do Modernist theories conflict with the New Testament? Still, as always before, the core of the issue is the spiritual supremacy of the historic Jesus Christ. 'What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He?' The Modernism of M. Loisy which is indifferent to the 'historicity' of the Founder, and rests wholly in "values" secured by ecclesiastical authority cannot possibly be reconciled with the teaching of the Apostles.