The Henson Journals
Thu 20 September 1928
Volume 46, Pages 82 to 83
[82]
Thursday, September 20th, 1928.
Mayor wrote to ask me to preach in Whitburn next Sunday morning in order to say something about Canon Hopkinson, who for 15 years was Rector of the parish. It occurred to me that to do this would equip me with an adequate defence (if one were needed) for my not preaching in Burnmoor, & accordingly I consented, & spent the morning in preparing a sermon.
In the afternoon I walked in the Park, where, falling in with two unemployed youths, I made them my companions for a walk. They were companionable and conversational. I think we all enjoyed ourselves.
On my return, I wrote a long letter to Abp. Söderblom and sent him a copy of my 'Reflections'.
I received some significant communications viz:
1)An Open letter to the Bishop of Gloucester, signed by Lord Halifax & 725 clergy, protesting against Major's heresies.
2)A memorandum from some Anglo–Catholic Clergy proposing the terms on which they will support the Bishops!
3)Some violent letters &c from Protestants protesting against Lang's appointment to Canterbury, with illustrations!
[83]
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After dinner the two Ordination candidates came for their interviews. Albert Jackson is to be ordained to a 'perpetual diaconate', and William Usher is to serve at S. Gabriel's, Bishopwearmouth. The first is 60, and the last 23. I gave them each a copy of my "Church & Parson in England".
[symbol] Jack Boden & his wife left this morning. I feel a certain guilt for his secularism of mind, for he was one of those – I fear there may be many of them – who have taken from me nothing but the baser elements of my teaching, missing its intentions & true character. His residence in London, where he spent much time in the Club, & acquired the supercilious omniscience peculiar to the habitual Clubman, has done him no good, & his preferment to a "good" living has provided a 'stylites–pillar' of parsonic advertisement. He has some literary ability, not so much as he imagines & not nearly enough to enable a literary career, & this has added a streak of vanity to the considerable fund of natural self–conceit. Modernism is doing in him its usual work of moral paralysis and mental inflation. He affects a mighty admiration for Dick Shepherd, and swears by Major!