The Henson Journals

[194]

Monday, August 13th, 1928.

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I found my sweet wife devoting her earliest hours to the study of the Bishop of Oxford's 'Notes' on the Crisis. This argued a generous desire to 'see daylight' in the darkness of the ecclesiastical situation, & I may not despair of her ultimate emergence into at least so much illumination as the half–light in which I myself grope my course!

The Protestant interpretation of the episcopally unanimous declaration of principle, which the Archbishop of Canterbury made to the Assembly is thus stated by Jack Boden in his Parish Magazine:–

"To this statement of the Church's proper freedom we can all subscribe. The important sentence in the Archbishop's declaration seems to be the clause "When its mind has been fully ascertained". When Parliament met to debate the measure presenting the Revised Prayer Book in June, it was known that the mind of the Church had not been ascertained, or rather that in so far as it had been ascertained it was seriously divided. It is not Parliament or the country that is at fault: it is the Church itself, or, at least, large sections of it, which are looking backwards to medievalism, or across the sea to Rome. It is not the country which is un–Christian, or any more un–Christian than it ever was, but the Church which is becoming un–English, or out of date".

[195] [symbol]

Apparently the two essentials of a vigorous Church are to be English, and to be up to date!

Shebbeare and his wife motored from Stanhope, and lunched with us, Mrs Shebbeare driving the car. Something went wrong on the way, & the repairing of the car was not completed before 7.30 p.m. when they started on their return journey, a distance of 73 miles. Shebbeare is a baffling phenomenon. His parish, judged by all the conventional tests, is abominably neglected, for though it has 2500 inhabitants, & there are two clergymen resident (for Shebbeare has an assistant–curate), the congregations are woefully small, & hardly any persons are presented for Confirmation. The income of the benefice is £1600, but Shebbeare has turned the garden into allotments, bisected the Rectory, and sublet half of it. Nothing could be meaner than his administration of this famous parish where Butler wrote the Analogy, & Phillpots collected such traditions of Butler as lingered among the people. But, none the less, S. has lectured on Pastoral Theology(!) in Cambridge, is prominent on the now–fashionable doctrinal Commissions, and a prolific writer of not quite first–rate theologico–philosophical books.

[196]

We owe his appointment to Stanhope to the influence of his friend, the amiable but weak & injudicious Burge, lately Bishop of Oxford. He was the first 'whole–time incumbent, for before his appointment the Rectory had been in the patronage of the Bishop of Ripon, & had been regularly used to provide an income for the suffragan–bishop. These episcopal incumbents were largely absentees, though resident, but the employed two assistant–curates, & the parishioners were not neglected. Much emphasis was placed on the parishioners' interest when the exchange between the Bishop of Ripon & the Duchy of Cornwall was carried through with Bishop Moule's approval. Now the parishioners look back with regret to the time of the episcopal rectors. Shebbeare has a young wife, & several small children, of whom the eldest, a boy of 13, is just entering Winchester. His anxiety to provide for his family may explain, but cannot really excuse, his neglect of his parish. Why should it be held an obligation of honour that a clergyman's son should be sent (as in the case of Shebbeare's boy) to an expensive preparatory school, & then to Winchester, when the money to enable these privileges is secured by unworthy economies in Stanhope, & a withdrawal from the performance of parochial duty of most of the Rector's interest, & much of his time?