Prime Ministers and Some Others: A Book of ReminiscencesRussell, George William Erskine
History
Prime Ministers and Some Others: A Book of Reminiscences
Russell, George William Erskine
Great Britain -- Biography
It was no common achievement to fill that hall on a hot summer
evening in the middle of the war, and with very little' assistance
from the Press. Yet Mr. Sheppard did it, and he filled an "over-flow
meeting" as well. The chair was taken by the Rev. William Temple,
who tempered what might have been the too fervid spirit of the
gathering with the austerity which belongs to a writer on philosophy,
an ex-Head Master, and a prospective Bishop. The hall was densely
crowded with clergy, old and young--old ones who had more or less
missed their mark, and young ones keen to take warning by these
examples. There were plenty of laymen, too, quite proud to realize
that, though they are not in Holy Orders, they too are "in the
Church"; and a brilliant star, if only he had appeared, would have
been a Second-Lieutenant in khaki, who unfortunately was detained
at the front by military duties. A naval and a military chaplain
did the "breezy" business, as befitted their cloth; and, beaming
on the scene with a paternal smile, was the most popular of Canons,
who by a vehement effort kept silence even from good words, though
it must have been pain and grief to him.[*]
[Footnote *: Alas! we have lost him since.]
The oratorical honours of the evening were by common consent adjudged
to a lady, who has since been appointed "Pulpit Assistant" to the
City Temple. May an old-fashioned Churchman suggest that, if this
is a sample of Mr. Sheppard's new movement, the "Life" of the Church
of England is likely to be a little too lively, and its "Liberty"
to verge on licence? A ministry of undenominational feminism is
"a thing imagination boggles at." Here it is to be remarked that
the leaders of the movement are male and female after their kind.
Dr. and Mrs. Dingo sit in council side by side, and much regret
is expressed that Archdeacon Buckemup is still a celibate. But
let us be of good cheer. Earnest-minded spinsters, undeterred by
the example of Korah (who, as they truly say, was only a man),
are clamouring for the priesthood as well as the vote; and in the
near future the "Venerable Archdeaconess" will be a common object
of the ecclesiastical sea-shore. Miss Jenkyns, in _Cranford_, would
have made a capital Dean.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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