Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1923-01-22
Believed by Congregation
to Have Thrown Gaunt-
let to Bishop
CHURCH is PACKED
For Unshakled Clergy
Congregation Thunder Hand
Clans as Preacher Makes Fer
vent Plea For Freedom.

New York, Jan. pa cry
large number of persons VINO sue
ceeded in squeezing into the den
selypacked Church of the AS
cension yesterday to hear the
Rev. DR.. Percy Stickley Grant,
left that edifce with the impress
sion in their minds that the rec
tor had thrown the gauntlet at
Bishop William I. Manning, Of
the Protestant Episcopal Diocese
of New York, and that he had
taken a stand that is virtually
certain to make him the object
Of heresy charges,
There was no recantation of the
utterances last Sunday, which
prompted the bishop to make a
formal demand that he retract or
resign from the church. Instead,
he reafIirmed his stand, and there
was a great burst of applause
evhen he brought his sermon
TO climax.
The people had pushed their
way into the building a good
while before the time set for the
commencement of the service, and
many of them had stood iammed
tbgether in the aisles or had
huddled side by side on the edge
of the chancel platform anxious
ly waiting 10 hear what answer
DR.. Grant would make to the
bishop.
They wondered if he woult
seek to retreat from his asser
ton that conservation of church
buildings was relic of The
days of "witchcraft, magic anc
taboo" He did not mention it.
They wondered if he would
back down from his assertion
that Jesus did not possess equal
power with God. Instead, he rel
terated the statement and quoted
the Gospels to support it.
In the crowd that filled the
church vestibules and extended
to the sidewalks edge, three wo
men collapsed and had to be tend
ed by bystanders as the clergy
man delivered himself of a three
quarter of an hour sermon iusti-
flying his previous remarks about
/ the church doctrines.
This sermon was brought to q
climax with an appeal by the rec
tor for "an American church
which believes in freedom, rather
than in authority" and "an un-
shackled clergy" with an appeal
| for a church in which the man
who is paid to study and preach
the gospels may be at liberty to
pass the fruit of his study over
to his congregation, even "if he
finds that it does not jibe witt!
something he was taught 40 years
ago.
Finally, he asked of his hear
ers: "When your son comes back
from college and you say, Nov
son, come to church with us this
morning. do you want him to say,
on father, don't ask me to listen
to such bunk as that?
At this an unprecedented thing
occurred. There was burst OF
applause in the rear of the churcl
/ The handclapping quickly spreao
and soon every part of the conss-
Grated edifice was echoing with II
It increased in volume and the
died down. Then it arose agai'
louder than before, and continue.
for fully a minute as the rect
stood mute in the pulpit: the u
bic opened before him. and 3
finger resting upon the four
verse of the ffty-sixth chapter 9
the book of Isiah: Behold, ] haE
given Hir, as Witness for II
peoule, a leader and conaman de
of the people,. He had seleote
/ this as, the text Of his serroF
he said because it conceded vlt
his own view of Christ.