The Henson Journals

[134]

Monday, June 10th, 1929.

I wrote to Lord Scarbrough congratulating him on the K.G. He is certainly an excellent man, & merits the honour in spite of Lord Melboune.

A crowd of members of the Women's Temperance Association invaded the Garden under the auspices of Mrs Dawson–Walker.

I motored to Durham in the afternoon, and fetched the Archbishop of Dublin from the Deanery. We had much talk together on many subjects. He clings to the notion that the Establishment in England may yet be saved. I was interested to note his unfavourable view of Headlam's attitude towards Reunion. He has a liberal habit of thinking, and expressed opinions on the difficult questions of sexual morality (which, it is understood, are to be brought before the Lambeth Conference) which are extremely independent and courageous. We prolonged our conversation until midnight, and parted with the desire (which, I think, was mutual) to know more of one another's minds.

[135]

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Barnes preached yesterday in the Abbey. The newspapers give much prominence to his sermon, which seems to have conceived in his now familiar style of calculated offensiveness, e.g.

"Even in their Prayer–book proposals the Bishops made what are now generally seen to have been in effect concessions to religious barbarism. These proposals made it possible to teach that a priest can convey spiritual properties to inanimate matter. We need the controlling influence of science, with its appeal to experiment and reason, to prevent such recrudescence of ancient superstitions."

He takes up his parable against the miracles of the New Testament.

"He (sc. the educated Christian) recognizes that, as regards so–called facts of history, there can be no finality in argument. But prolonged controversy as to New Testament miracles seems to him fruitless. Many of the Modernist clergy take the same standpoint. They are not prepared to deny, but they regard themselves [136] under no obligation to defend, the miraculous records of the New Testament. Such controversy, they feel, is best ignored in order that the main work of religious revival may be done. They recognise, what no man can deny, that the scientific attitude towards miracles aids the destructive criticism now being applied to the Gospels. They see that such criticism is finding expression in popular literature, and that it is leading secular historians of repute to write more guardedly of the origins of the Christian faith. Naturally our Modernist clergy do not welcome such tendencies. But they are resolved to accept without fear the guidance of the spirit of truth. [Manchester Guardian] They cd do so without dismay because they were in no doubt as to the main features of the teaching of Jesus. His religious insight & spiritual elevation were untouched by modern inquiry. The Gospel of the Kingdom which was central in His revelation [137] was becoming a world–wide ideal. The Kingdom of God on earth was the natural consummation of man's spiritual destiny: and, moreover, the revelations of God wh. come to us through all the sacraments of life, the beauty of Nature, the sweet sanctities of home, music, and poetry – such revelations coalesced naturally with the teaching of Jesus, & with our reverence for His Spirit. In fact, the Christ–Spirit which was in Him ran through the world, its great redeeming force. There were some who wd condemn this simplicity of faith. Perhaps it was more akin to the faith of the Quaker than to that of Anglican tradition. But it was not creedless, & the spiritual record of the Quakers showed that it need not, & would not, be barren. He saw in it the possibility of a basis of union between the divided communions of Christendom."

This is certainly a new & revised version of 'the faith once for all delivered to the saints'.

[138]

The Manchester Guardian reports the Bishop's reference to candidates for Holy Orders thus:–

"Though able boys of every social class can now reach the universities, very few indeed take holy orders. We are often told that there is no dearth of candidates, but unfortunately many of those who now come forward are inadequate alike in mental capacity and in moral. Some wish social advancement: they should be rejected. Others have the lamentable confidence which the seminary produces. Too many men ordained during & since the War cloak ignorance & inefficiency beneath an extravagant sacerdotalism. Such men are a weakness. To remove misunderstanding we need constantly to explain that, while old standards of belief have crumbled, no new orthodoxy has been officially set forth. A young man, enthusiastic for all the new knowledge of our age, can today, without dissimulation or hypocrisy, become an Anglican clergyman. [139] Adventure attracts youth: the adventure of re–shaping the message of the Church of England cannot fail to be exciting. [Of course the mere adventure would do grave harm. What the Church needed was the adventurer whom God sent forth.

(Times)]

When I reflect on the actual obligations of the pastoral ministry to which our young men are ordained, & when I remember how meagre their intellectual equipment must necessarily be, the notion that they are to be urged to embark on the 'vastly exciting adventure' of 're–shaping the message of the Church of England' strikes me as literally grotesque. I wonder what kind of a 'Charge' Barnes thinks it proper to address to his candidates on the eve of Ordination. That the effect of his public speeches must be extremely hurtful to the cause of religion, and extremely discreditable to the Church of England, seems to me indisputable. His attitude of scornful depreciation of his own Church is very painful.

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