The Henson Journals

[170]

Tuesday, March 19th, 1929.

["]although not ardently or fanatically religious, I feel drawn to the life of a country Rector since a visit I paid to the ancestral home of my grandmother, where they had held property for over 500 years, &, although the village is small, and the stipend to match, I, as I said, am drawn to it.["]

(from a letter applying to be accepted as a candidate for Ordination)

Now, even in the present shortage of clergy, can I allow that this expresses a genuine vocation to the Christian Ministry? The writer concludes thus:

["]Should you think that there wd be any tempering of the wind to the shorn lamb, & wd advise me to substitute "cure of souls" for "the practice of medicine", & thus continue my interrupted & broken life, I trust you will advise me, & obtain an earnest and steady worker for the maintenance of religion, about which I feel strongly.["]

Now what can be said to him?

[171]

I wrote to Avignon engaging bedrooms in the Hotel d'Europe for 5 nights from April 4th. Lionel & I motored to Newcastle, where I ordered tickets from Messrs T. Cook, from London to Avignon, Carcassonne, Biarritz, Paris, and back to London. Also, I purchased a Kodak and presented it to Ella. Then we returned to the Castle, and, after an hour's interval, left it again in order to motor to West Hartlepool. There I confirmed 64 persons in S. Aidan's Church. They came from 3 parishes with a combined population of about 30,000. On the usual calculation about 600 persons reached the age of 14 in those parishes during the last 12 months. And the Hartlepools are supposed to be the most strongly Anglican part of the diocese! After seeing Knowlden, we returned to Auckland.

Martin Gillett writes to say that he has accepted an offer of a title for the Trinity Ordination from Lilburn of S. Oswald's, Hartlepool. This is so far satisfactory that it may save that incumbent from collapsing irreparably.

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