The Henson Journals

[93]

17th Sunday after Trinity, October 12th, 1930.

A brilliant morning, still and autumnal. I celebrated the Holy Communion in the Chapel at 8 a.m. We numbered only six communicants, but the promise extends even to so small a company. "Where two or three are gathered together in my Name: there am I in the midst of you". I wonder whether the "Christ of Criticism" ever said the gracious words, or felt Himself competent to say them. It is indeed, high time that we came to an understanding with the critics, for their pronouncements are as disturbing as they are arbitrary: & the assumption of infallible certitude which marked them is both daunting and ill–grounded. They are all agreed in ignoring, if not also repudiating, the Church, as if even the texts which they mangle & pervert were not the Church's bequest: and their creed appears to omit the Article on the Holy Ghost, for whose presence and activity in Christian History their theories allow no place. It is becoming increasingly evident to me that these modernists are destroying the indispensable foundations of the Christian Religion. No discipleship is really possible to that colourless phantom, "The Christ of Criticism".

[94]

[symbol]

We all went into Durham for the morning service in S. Nicholas, where I dedicated the panelling in the chancel & other improvements which have been made in the hideous parish church. Also I preached a sermon, taking occasion to speak about public worship.

The Mayor (Murdoch) and Corporation attended in state, but the congregation seemed to me disappointingly small. I fear that the decline of church–going has reached a point at which recovery is not to be hoped for. After service we, and also the Mayor & his wife, lunched with the Vicar and Mrs Pickering. I was interested to hear the Mayor's opinions on the economic situation in the county. He is rather despondent, but not, I think, more so than the facts require. He describes Mr Peter Lee, the Chairman of the D.C.C., as a miners' Mussolini, obsessed with mega–maniacal dreams. The domination of our local politics by the Miners' Association is certainly very irrational, very exasperating, and appallingly extravagant.

[95]

[symbol]

I wrote to William: and also to Rawlinson. He asks me to sanction his conducting a retreat for the deacons who are to be ordained at Advent. They themselves have asked for it. I don't see how I can rightly refuse: and yet I don't wholly like to consent. There is something mortifying to my episcopal spirit in so clear an indication that the men whom I ordain find no sufficient provision in the arrangements that I make for their Ordination, and turn to another for the spiritual help which I designed to give them! Nor can I think it likely that they will be in the mood to benefit from the addresses in my Chapel when they come to them directly from a "Retreat" inspired by another spirit & directed towards another conception of Ministry. The inner discord of the C. of E. is disclosing itself in my diocese, & I am helpless to prevent it. Then there is the apparent and increasing resentment of the Bishop of Jarrow, who finds himself being steadily &, so to say, surreptitiously ousted from the central place in the horizon of the Ordination candidates. It is hard to see how this problem is to be solved.

[96]

I went to Eldon, and preached at Evensong, prefacing my sermon by a brief reference to the late Vicar, Greenway. The congregation was disappointingly small, a circumstance which may not be unconnected with the Harvest Festival services which were in progress in all the Chapels as well as the Churches. Still in may not be questioned that the Bishop of Durham is not greatly regarded in Eldon! Had my predecessor, Bishop Anthony Bek been treated with like disrespect, the Eldon folk had known it! The lay–reader took the service, & took it very well. I read the lessons myself. After the service two daughters of Mr Greenway spoke to me, & thanked me for my kindness to their father.

Old Canon Scott, formerly Vicar of Norton, has died, &, in consequence, I have an honorary canonry to bestow. There are not many clergy who might be thought well–fitted for ever so small a distinction. Twenty four honorary Canonaries in a diocese with less than 300 benefices are too many. But the appetite for these baubles is insatiable.

---