The Henson Journals

[177]

Monday, July 28th, 1930.

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This morning we started on the Report of the Committee on the Ministry, & kept at it all day, beginning with recruitment and training of the clergy, and going on to the Female Diaconate. There was a curious debate on the "theological" argument against a female priesthood in which Bishop Palmer & the Abp of York joined issue with the Bp. of Truro. Barnes interposed a curious & characteristic speech advocating complete equality – he could even look forward to female bishops – on the ground of the latest biological science. He is a striking figure, the very model of a heresiarch. He might have been Huss in front of the fathers of Constance, or Luther at the Diet of Worms. Tall, pallid with much study, with stooping shoulders, & a voice at once challenging and melancholy, he commands attention as well by his manner & aspect, as by his opinions which are almost insolently oppugnant to the general mind. He is a good man, but clearly a fanatic: & in a more disciplined age, could not possibly have avoided the stake.

[178]

The Bishop of Montreal ^(Farthing)^ [ – a weak, pompous man with a muddled mind – ] proposed a resolution authorizing the bishop to allow lay–readers to minister the chalice: and I supported him. After a good deal of discussion, in which a persistent effort was made to drag in the question of the sub–diaconate, this resolution was adopted unanimously with the provision that the provincial authority must approve the bishop's action. The Bishop of S. Alban's moved that every diocese should provide money for the intellectual assistance of the clergy: but I opposed, & the motion was rejected. This was the entire extent of my effective action! The Bishop of Blackburn had the resolutions about the female ministry in hand, & did his duty well, though the Conference was rather critical.

[struck through] Mrs Murray of Murraythwaite came to dinner. She is an inveterate gossip & chatter–box. [end]

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