The Henson Journals
Sun 29 December 1929
Volume 49, Pages 42 to 44
[42]
1st Sunday after Christmas, December 29th, 1929.
The last Sunday in the year has a character and message of its own. Today I end those Celebrations of Holy Communion which, throughout the year, have gathered up discipleship and ministry in the most solemnly significant of religious actions. How much more they ought to have meant to me than, in fact, they have meant! Today I must needs approach the Altar as, before all things, a penitent. And to the penitence I must surely add thanksgiving. Too rarely do we remember the mercies which we have received at the hands of the Almighty. Those older Christians (e.g. Patrick) who regularly reckoned up their secular blessings, and thanked God for them, were nearer the truth than we, who never move beyond the large phrases of the General Thanksgiving. "Praise the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me praise his holy Name. Praise the Lord, O my soul: and forget not all his benefits; who forgiveth all thy sin: and healeth all thine infirmities: who saveth thy life from destruction: & crowneth thee with mercy & loving kindness."
I celebrated the Holy Communion in the Chapel at 8 a.m. William Bryden communicated.
[44]
The heavy rain last night has swollen the rivers. Both the Wear & the Gaunless were in semi–spate, & even the Counden Bec [sic] made quite a good show. Thanks to the abnormal rainfall of the last two months, the record of the year will be almost normal in spite of the prolonged drought.
I motored to South Shields, and preached at Evensong in S. Michael's, South Westoe, to a large congregation. My sermon had been carefully prepared, and I had hoped it would impress the people, but I did not get hold of them, & I fear it was a failure. However the spectacle of a "live" church was both unusual and exhilarating. Shaddick, who is in his forties, has two assistant curates viz. Wright whom I ordained in 1927, and Drury, who was Gospeller at the last Advent Ordination. They are all comparatively young, & two of them are unmarried. Accordingly, the church was full of young men & women. There were 16 men & 22 boys in the choir. Pattinson turned up, and carried the pastoral staff. Afterwards I gave him and his fiancée a lift back to Sunderland, on my way back to Auckland Castle.