Not Necessarily Leeds
1 wish you could meet our delightful Archdeacon There is not a thins he's unable to speak on. And if what he says does not seem to you clear, You will have to admit he's extremely sincere.
Yes, he is a man with his feet on the ground, His financial arrangements are clever and sound, I find as his Bishop I'm daily ddlighted To think of the livings his skill has united.
Let me take for example St. Peter the Least Which was staffed by a most irresponsible priest; There are fewer less prejudiced persons than I But the services there were impossibly High.
Its strange congregation was culled from afar, And you know how eclectic such worshippers are. The stipend was small but the site was worth more Than any old church I have sold here before.
I'm afraid its supporters were apt to forget The crippling extent of Diocesan debt, Though our able Archdeacon explained to them all Of his reasons for selling their church and their hall.
I'm a moderate man and averse to extremes, So St. George's was hardly the church of my dreams, It was Classic in style and most needlessly Low And we felt that, in fairness, it too ought to go.
With the sum the Archdeacon obtained for the site And its very rich living, we now can unite St. George and St. Peter and see them again In a moderate church I've allowed to remain, A worshipful place which I greatly admire For the length of its chancel and tone of its choir; And I've promised to preach them a course during Lent On How the Diocesan Quota is Spent.
JOHN BETJI3MAN
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