Duty at Lexington

Dr. Henry Pryor Almon Abbott learned last week that he must remain on duty as bishop (Episcopalian) of the Lexington, Ky., diocese. Bishop Abbott tendered his resignation last month after one of his parish priests, Julius Arnold Velasco, had married a Roman Catholic girl against the bishop's insistence. A diocese court cleared the priest of everything but using defamatory language against his chief (TIME, May 12).

Because such resignations pass through the Presiding Bishop's hands, and because he did not want the serenity of the Church disturbed by the House of Bishops considering an embittered resignation so very soon after his election as Presiding Bishop, it was Presiding Bishop James De Wolf Perry of Rhode Island (TIME, April 7) who, not without difficulty, persuaded Bishop Abbott to remain on duty at Lexington for "the best interests of the Church."

An interested but non-interfering observer of this Episcopalian incident was Bishop Abbott's elder brother, Mather Almon Abbott, headmaster of Lawrenceville School, a Presbyterian.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.