"Filial Incident"

In Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral, high on a knoll overlooking Springfield, Mass., one day last week gathered seven Episcopal bishops, their clergy and many a rich and cultivated worshiper. The grey-haired, 86-year-old retired Bishop of Massachusetts mounted the pulpit, preached on "The Quickening of the Spirit." Almost abruptly terminating his sermon, the oldster fixed his gaze upon a tall, younger man sitting at a table in the centre aisle. "My son!" said he, "my father used to say to me again and again, 'No man has ever been blessed throughout life as I have been.' I have repeated these words for myself, 'No man has ever been blessed throughout life as I have been.' And of all His blessings, this one stands high, that you are able to take up the refrain into your own life. With the confidence of the people of this diocese, which will, I know, ripen into affection, you will go in and out among them carrying the gospel of a joyful, grateful service, singing to yourself, 'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His Holy Name.'"

"Old Bishop William Lawrence descended from the pulpit. William Appleton Lawrence, 47, who had stood up quickly when addressed as "My son," advanced to the altar. Bishop Lawrence and his six colleagues, including President Bishop James De Wolf Perry, laid their hands upon the bald pate of the man whom the Episcopalians of Western Massachusetts had elected their Bishop (TIME, Nov. 2).

Young Bishop Lawrence was now consecrated, in what his father called "a filial incident which has never before taken place in the history of the church in this country." Everyone partook of communion.

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