A Bishop's Rights

A New York court last week officially upheld the right of an Episcopal bishop to fire a minister under his jurisdiction. As he listened to his friend, Justice Meier Steinbrink, deliver the long decision upholding the provisions of Episcopal canon law, old Rector John Howard Melish, 74, slumped forward in his seat and rested his forehead on his cane.

It had been a dragged-out, losing fight to keep his son, Assistant Rector William Howard Melish, 38, on the staff of Brooklyn Heights's red stone Church of the Holy Trinity. Young Melish's busy left-wing activities (e.g., he was chairman of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship) had finally led Holy Trinity's vestrymen to appeal to the Bishop of Long Island for the ouster of their rector. After the court ruled, many a Holy Trinity parishioner hoped that son William would at last resign so that the bishop could reverse his decision on the well-loved father.

But this week, embattled Rector Melish announced that he would see it through with his son to the bitter end by appealing to the appellate court. Meanwhile, he and young Melish would take no part in the services at the church which he has headed for 45 years. "My family and I," he announced, "will attend . . . as members of the parish."

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