The Henson Journals

[212]

Wednesday, May 27th, 1931.

A fine and very warm day. Everything that blossoms & flowers is rushing into a pageant of self–expression.

I worked at a sermon for Hereford Cathedral.

Toomey came to lunch bringing with him a young clergyman who is doing temporary duty as chaplain at Barnard Castle School. He is destined for South Africa, but wants to acquire some knowledge of teaching first.

Charles and I motored to Pallion, where I collated Heaver to the vicarage. The church was crowded, and there was a considerable muster of the clergy & lay workers. I received an excellent impression. Mrs Heaver, the new Vicar's mother, had come from London for the service. I saw his wife, a poor little futile thing, who will be something of a problem. There is no doubt much to be said for allowing the clergy to marry, and, unless they be most grievously maligned, the celibates enjoy no savoury reputation, yet experience compels me to allow that the practical inconveniences of clerical matrimony are very great, and that if it must be conceded that many problems are thereby resolved, it cannot be denied that other & hardly less difficult problems are thereby created.

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