Bishop & Locksmith

People who are accustomed to think of New York's Bishop William Thomas Manning as an extremely formal, frigidly aristocratic little prelate would have been amazed to behold him last Sunday morning. His pulpit was a footstool, set up amid shavings, lumber, scaffolding, tarpaulins, in a little Harlem church. His sermon was a fighting talk. His congregation of 250, pressing close upon him, was three-quarters Negro.

All Souls' Protestant Episcopal Church, at 114th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue, was once all white. The southward spread of Harlem has turned it Negro by 300 souls to 50. Much vexed were a group of white vestrymen, led by one Manuel Jesus Roure, who blamed it all upon the rector, a lank, thin-lipped onetime curate of Trinity Church named Rev. Rollin Dodd. The vestry ordered Rector Dodd to cease encouraging the Negroes. When he refused the vestry asked him to resign, stopped his salary. When this failed they had the church closed, "for repairs,'' and the locks changed. Declaring the ceiling might fall any moment, they had scaffolding put up.

New York's Bishop insists upon seemliness and order in his diocese. Too, he displayed pride last fortnight in the fact that New York has more Negro Episcopalians than any other diocese North or South. Last week he jumped to Rector Dodd's defense, announced he would preach in All Souls'. When Manuel Jesus Roure threatened to keep him out by "legal means," Bishop Manning said, ''I shall be there."

Sunday morning Bishop Manning put on his biretta, Episcopal vestments, academic hood. When he arrived at All Souls', he found the rector, the superintendent, twelve policemen and a large crowd waiting. Bishop Manning demanded the keys. The superintendent had none. "Shall we break in?" asked Rector Dodd. "Yes!" said the Bishop loudly and firmly, adding that church law and civil law sanctioned him. Rector Dodd had with him a lock smith. While Bishop Manning waited, they went through the basement, sanctuary and nave, removing hinges, picking locks, at last smashing the padlock on the front gates of the church. "You are all welcome," beamed the rector, and all entered. Bishop Manning stepped to a footstool beneath the scaffolding, preached firmly on the rights of the rector to serve his neighborhood, ending, "I request, and as Bishop I instruct, that this church . . . shall be open for services at such times as he shall direct." Then Bishop Manning shook hands all around, patted the heads of children, said, "God bless you" to one small Negro who replied, "All right" and ran away. Next day Manuel Jesus Roure threatened to sue. charging that Bishop Manning had backed Rector Dodd because both were attempting to make All Souls' "an Anglo-Catholic communion." Indicated as a possible lawyer for the vestry was Low Churchman George Woodward Wickersham.

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