The Henson Journals

[75]

Monday, January 7th, 1929.

The newspapers report more or less largely what I said yesterday in the Cathedral. The Newcastle Journal prints most of the sermon on its front page. The Manchester Guardian has a column on its front page. The Times prints the passage on Unemployment in one place: & that on Disestablishment in another. The Yorkshire Post does the same, & adds the reference to the King's illness under a separate heading.

I started work on the Returns of the clergy to the Visitation Questions in order to prepare the promised "Part III" of my Charge, dealing with Pastorate under Modern Conditions. The documents are neither interesting nor valuable. They reflect a low standard of intelligence, and a still lower standard of enthusiasm, and are quite evidently the work of middle–aged and ageing men, who have fallen into a rather poor habit of parochial duty, are more or less conscious of failure, and without expectation of any improvement. The shadow of the Depression adds gloom to the continuing cloud of "Labour".

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