The Henson Journals
Wed 9 October 1929
Volume 48, Pages 376 to 377
[376]
Wednesday, October 9th, 1929.
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Leonard Wilson came to see me. He is a heavy–looking young man, predestined to corpulence, probably disposed to be obstinate in his opinions, but mainly disposed to be reasonable. He has come into collision with the C.M.S. authorities in Egypt, ostensibly on account of modernist opinions which alarmed their sensitive and archaic orthodoxy, but perhaps really for reasons of discordant temperament and changed plans. Anyway, for the nonce, he is out of employment. It occurred to me at once that he would suit Thurlow in S. Margaret's, Durham.
I went in to Durham, licensed 4 curates & instituted turner to Grindon, lunched with my Suffragan, & returned to Auckland.
Pattinson and I motored to Shiney Row, picking up Lazenby & dropping Wilson on the way. I consecrated the new Church, a very mean building, being indeed only the parish hall slightly adapted. There was a crowded congregation, and a good attendance of the local clergy.
[377]
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I had a considerable talk with Leonard Wilson before going to bed. His account of Leatherhead, where he was at school, is certainly disconcerting: & what he has to say about Oxford is distinctly not re–assuring. The ill reports of the University which induced Bishop Carey to write to me would seem to have ampler foundation than Streeter allowed. That Leatherhead should be in a bad moral condition is a very grave matter for the Church of England because the sons of the clergy are largely educated there, and of these a substantial proportion take holy orders in after years. May this not be one of the causes which explain that melancholy stain on clerical life, which is the shame and problem of ecclesiastical government? And may not the key to Kenneth's strange behaviour be really the ill atmosphere of undergraduate life in Oxford? His sudden aversion from games: his intensified self–consciousness, & his evident dislike of coming into contact with his superiors may all be explicable by his getting into some effeminate set, which pets & spoils him. It is a most disconcerting reflection.