New-York tribune., 1909-02-14
TO ASK INDEPENDENCE
NEXT STEP IN ST. JOHNS
CHAPEL FIGHT.
It's Champions H7M Cite Tr1nitys
Generous Treatment of St.
GEORGES as Precedent.

The next step by the members Of St Johns
chapel. in varick street. and other Episcopalans
who are lighting TO prevent Trinity Corporation
from closing the chapel. viii be an effort to
induce Trinity TO give st. Johns its indepen-
denoe. This was done in the case of st Georges
Church.
reached a point where an injunction against
Trinity is pending in the Supreme Court till
March / and a bill revoking Trinity's charter
of 1914 is before the New York Senate. It has
reached climax far as the communicates
of the chapel are concerned. and their battle is
now for complete autonomy
one Of St Johns most active defenders said
yesterday to a Tribune reporter that he hoped
for Trinity's surrender TO this proposition be-
fore both sides had been exploited in the courts
1t is thought by some that the plan will be re-
jected by Trinity as consistently as have been
all other requests and proposals since the hrst
petition Of St Johns and the memorial signed
bv President Roosevelt Elihu Root and others
were presented.
The people of the chapel are very desirous
that the name Of the church shall not be dragged
into the courts in matter of this kino' salo
ST. Johns defender, and they therefore nope
that Trinity itself 10 avoid this public scahcal'
will be willing to take the same wise view
PRECEDENT IN ST GEORGES CASE.
On Waking o,,r arguments to Trinity to show
v-bv II should make the only acceptable move
that now remains, shall cite the case OF 81
GEORGES Church which in 1911 was established
on an independent basis by Trinity, after 1t had
been a chapel of the parish since 1852 TRINITY
not only made the chapel independent but gave
il powerful shove toward prosperity by the
gift of at first twenty-four lots and then eight
y Cd Tr ian
in 1s47 At $4,000 St Georges was then re
moved TO Stuyvesant Square
we shall also quote to Trinity from the letter
written in 1856 by William Jay grandfather of
the present clerk Of the vestry, Colonel William
Jaw when legislative committee was investi-
eating Trinity and before it had rendered its
adverse report In this letter Mr.. Jay. who was
the son of Chief Justice Jay, says:
With lavish hands you have embelished our
2Tesant souarei and fashiona Bile avenues with
costly and ornamental structures now tim m ana tnd
poor and the wretched. and make straight their
Tic5 and refined with ali the genteef and eie-
CANT accompaniInents which wealth veal & can IuTnish m
her gospel simplicity. the salvation of their
be ve m and the ioathsome there open
Bethesda in which they may vas wash an. and be clean
in the next ten build twenty Select; at con con
abject dissolute and INDECENT neighborhoods Your
two last churches cost over s5oo,00o They were
not intended for vulgar sinners, and few such
ever enter their portals Now build for the chill
dren Of penury and Of crime
we now purpose giving Trinity oppor-
tnnity to do as Mr.. Jay recommended, at least
to some extent
est johns claim to- the rights Of an indie
pendent church are numerous. It is not rich
church but 1T is a growing and active one
Trinity has been finding that out lately Now it
may be willing to admit IT. Members of St.
Paurs st Johns. Trinity Chapel, ST. Agnes's
chapel and the Chapel of the Intercession have
the right to vote. vet of them all St Johns has
shown the greatest growth with the poorest
facilities and endowments-
..st. Johns can maintain itself as an iade-
pendent church without even the assistance that
ST Georges had to start with. All IL asks from
Trinity is the gift of the church buildings and
the land they occupy. and even that might be
bought from tho corporation by the friends of
ST. Johns IN accord with their former offer once
rejected BY Trinity"