JOHN BULL'S MOTHER
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sm,—Referring to the letters of Stephen Coleridge and "A. J." (in Spectator, August 16), following the communication of the Rev. P. B. Clayton, allow me as a cleric of close on fifty years' experience, thirty-five of these as Chairman of a Board of Guardians (of the Poor) to say something on the subject of " bishops " and " lesser clergy."
As my three sons served throughout the War, one of them as an air-pilot (1917) at Poperinghe, when he won a decoration, I value anything coming from or relating to Mr. Clayton, and do not wish to criticize the letters of his admirers.
There are, of course, bishops and bishops, lesser clergy and lesser clergy. I have known quite intimately half a dozen bishops, and have had some knowledge of others. Paren- thetically, one of them always spoke of the " inferior " clergy. But all the half-dozen were essentially timid ; and all of them obsessed by the importance of " the influential laymen."
They had all been appointed as " safe " men which (cer- tainly in effect) meant, safe to observe and be in agreement with the influential laymen. But, unfortunately, recognition on the basis of a big house or large means is a poor way (too often taken) to find men of real weight. The influence that a bishop himself might have had, if only he could have stood on his own feet, was generally unrealized through mistaken and over-deferential recognition of men, that the infallible group spirit of the Diocese perceived not to be " real officers," i.e., out for themselves, not for the Church. " Real " lesser clergy are not too numerous ; and possibly " real " bishops may be scarce : at least there is in life a great amount of unreality. But what the public wants is " entertainment " and " entertainers "—kernels not husks—and, of course, the sort of persons that provide " entertainment " in this other sense of that word. This accounts for the artificiality of much clerical work and of many clergymen. And " enter- tainers " by nature like applause, popularity, publicity, even notoriety. Even bishops have been of this category. But, surely, the generality are much nearer to the centre of gravity of the Church's work which is to speak forgiveness to the estranged ones, and to speak consolation to the sorrow-laden and distressed : to be more with the poor than with the rich.
The generality of the " lesser " (or " inferior ") clergy are on the mill-round, each of his own parish. Their sky is not
much clouded by the dust of Church Congress programmes those that have to do with that being a fringe, and really a class apart. One should distinguish between the creaking of the machinery and the work done by the machinery.--
I am, Sir, &c., dome QUINE, Leman Vicarage, Isle of Man. Canon and Vicar.
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