The Henson Journals

[141]

Wednesday, February 26th, 1930.

I wrote a Presidential Address for the Diocesan Conference. In view of the appointment of Sunday, March 16th as a Day of Intercession for the persecuted Church in Russia, it seemed inevitable that I should speak about the situation in Russia, but, like everybody else, I feel that I am groping in a dark fog of lies when I say anything on that subject. Two circumstances, and perhaps two only, differentiate the present horrors from previous exhibitions of Russian mentality – the enormous publicity outside of Russia, and the fanatical advocacy of the Marxian doctrine inside Russia. It is probably true that the Bolshevists are able to justify all their worst iniquities by ecclesiastical precedents, and these are by no means ancient, but lying within the remembrance, & even the experience of the people.

Pattinson and I motored to Chopwell by way of Consett. On the high ground there was fog, which so delayed us that we arrived at the Church some minutes after time. I admitted Moore, lately assistant curate of S. Aidan's, West Hartlepool, to the perpetual curacy of Chopwell, in succession to Macdonald. We went back to Auckland by way of Lanchester, and arrived at the Castle shortly after 9.30 p.m.

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