Episcopal Veto

The late Franklin D. Roosevelt was proud of being senior warden of St. James' Church at Hyde Park, N.Y. His father had been a vestryman before him. His first son, James, also served. St. James' and the Roosevelts were linked by tradi tion and sentiment. On Nov. 14, the Roosevelt-less vestry of ivy-covered St.

James' met at a Poughkeepsie hotel to fill three vacancies. For one they chose a Roosevelt, the late President's second son, Elliott.

Last week New York's thin-lipped, aging Bishop William Thomas Manning aimed an episcopal thunderbolt at un wary St. James' and its new vestryman-elect. In an action that he admitted was "unusual" he decreed that thrice-married Elliott "is not in good standing with the Church and therefore is not eligible for the office of vestryman and cannot serve in that capacity." Canon law forbids remarriage of di vorced persons except in case of infidelity.

The "innocent party" may remarry, but only with the approval of his bishop. Elliott's second and third marriages (to Ruth Googins in 1933 and Actress Faye Emerson in 1944) were performed without episcopal sanction, the first by a retired Congregational minister, the second by a Methodist pastor in a glassed-in observation station at Grand Canyon, Ariz.

Asked what the vestry of St. James' would do about the Bishop's bolt from the blue, Senior Warden Edmund Pendleton Rogers said: "I certainly think the vestry wouldn't go against Bishop Manning." Vestryman-elect Elliott Roosevelt (who had not asked to be a vestryman) said nothing.

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