Manhattan Churches

Vested in stole and surplice, Rector Randolph Ray stepped from the quiet of his sacristy into the flower-decorated chancel at the Little Church Around the Corner* last week, to preside at the unveiling of the fifth stained glass window there in memory of famed actors. This time it was to commemorate John Drew,/- whose mother had a pew at the Church before him.

The choir sang hymns, Rector Ray read from the psalms. There were four talks, all by laymen: one a Jew, one a Roman Catholic, one an Episcopalian, one a freethinker interested in Theosophy.

But this cosmopolitan atmosphere was no surprise to Rector Ray's congregation. Since the church was founded by Dr. George Hendrick Houghton it has been a tradition that people come to services there from all walks of life, all races and creeds. Rector Ray is the third rector at the Little Church Around the Corner in all the 80 years of its existence, his immediate predecessor having been Dr. George Clarke Houghton, nephew of the founder. The custom at the Little Church Around the Corner is for the actual rector to name his successor. So knowing Rector Ray's interest in theatrical people and things, Dr. Houghton invited him in 1923 to be vicar, with the right of succession. Three months later Dr. Houghton died.

Rector Ray was active in amateur theatricals at Columbia University when he was studying law. After a year as reporter on the Brooklyn Eagle and some time doing hack work for the magazines, Rector Ray began his studies at the general theological seminary.

Not precisely "famed" is Rector Ray. Nor would it be correct to refer to him as "one Dr. Randolph Ray." He is well-known, popular, esteemed, distinguished, conspicuous, important, well thought of, much talked of. He is a notable somebody.

Although the Little Church Around the Corner could be hidden behind the leaping spires of St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, or tucked into the crypt of Bishop Manning's Protestant Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, it is the most famed church in Manhattan.

There are others however no less interesting to visit, among them the following:

Trinity (Broadway and Wall Street), where Bishop Manning was rector before his elevation. Richest parish in New York.

Saint Esprit (No. 45 East 27th street), where Protestant Episcopal services are conducted in French.

St. Jean Baptiste (76th Street and Lexington Avenue), where the Host is displayed night and day for perpetual adoration. A group of Roman Catholic laymen, some rich, some poor, called the Nocturnal Adoration Society, meets once a week to spend the night in prayer.

First Presbyterian (Fifth Avenue at 12th Street). It was here that Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, ordained Baptist, preached his famed Anti-fundamentalist sermon which might have split the Presbyterian church.

Calvary Baptist (No. 123 West 57th Street), wherein is the pulpit of angular, fulminating Dr. John Roach Straton.

St. Andrew's (No. 20 City Hall Place). Every Sunday at 2:30 a. m. Rev. William E. Cashin, formerly chaplain of the Tombs jail, says a special mass for Roman Catholic printers from the newspaper shops in the neighborhood.

St. Philip's (134th Street between Lenox and Seventh Avenues). Here a Negro congregation listens to exceptional music by a choir of the same race.

Church of the Strangers (No. 309 West 57th St.) which opened its 16-story studio-apartment church house last week: the first skyscraper church completed in downtown New York. Nonsectarian.

*It was through an episode in which Joseph Jefferson (1829-1905), named "Rip Van Winkle," figured that the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration got the name by which it is popularly known. In those days the clergy more often than not disapproved of theatrical folk. Jefferson, seeking to make arrangements for the funeral of a friend who was an actor, approached a minister who declined to officiate. "But," said he, "there's a little church around the corner where they will accommodate you."

Said Actor Jefferson, "Then God bless the little church around the corner!"

/-The other four memorial windows are for James Montague, Edwin Booth, Richard Mansfield, Joseph Jefferson.