FORCEFUL PROSE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 409, 19 December 1932, Page 2

FORCEFUL PROSE

BISHOPS USE FORCE LOCKSMITH ORDERED TO BREAK LOCK OF CHURCH ASSISTING OUSTED RECTOR Trespass action against Bishop William T. Manning for forcing the doors of All Soul's Episeopal Church in Harlem was considered to-day by seven vestrymen he rebuked for their alleged opposition to negro attendance and membership. Bishop Manning, as sedate and ascetic in his Episeopal vestments as when he preaebes at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, stood befoi'e the barred door of the church yesterday and order ed a locksmith to hreak the loclc. Then he walked down the aisle, covered with wood -shavings and fallen plaster, stood on a footstool in front of a scaffolding which obstructed the sanetuary and chancel, and preached to an audience of 250, half white and. half negro, that: — "There is neither Jew nor Greelc, barbarian nor Schythian, gond rior free for all are one in Christ Jesus." The Bishop strongly supported the rector, the Rey. Rollin Dodd, in his insistence that negroes be permitted to attend worship services. The resignation of Mr. Dodd had been asked by seven of 11 vestrymen of the church after he had refused their requests to hold separate services for coloured members. When he did not resign his salary was stop- , ped and the church locked . Ten extra police were on hand to prevent a disturbance when Bishop Manning hove in sight at 10.20 a.m. A crowd of about 300 was waiting, among them the rector, locked out of his church. Bishop Manning at once ordered the padlock on the iron grilled doors broken, and a waiting locksmith obliged. The bishop entered and launched into his support of the rector. He delivered a sermon declaring it the 'plain duty" of the church "to minister to the people- of the community, white and coloured alilce."