In the Foursquare Gospel Church in Cleveland one day last week stood Clifton Hoffman, 23, and Florence Brinkman, 21. Facing them was a chub-cheeked, eight-year-old boy, dressed up like a minister. No masquerading moppet but a real ordained parson, the Rev. Charles Jaynes Jr. was in the act of marrying the young couple. The ceremony performed, he ordered the groom to “kiss the bride.” Then he added in fine fatuous style: “Come around tomorrow night. I think you’ll find the sermon interesting. It is on the five wise and five foolish virgins.”
The Rev. Charles Jaynes Jr.’s parents, both preachers in Aimee Semple McPherson’s organization, claim he is the world’s youngest minister. Ordained last year by the International Ministerial Federation (TIME, Aug. 2), he has preached all over the U. S., drawing 15,000 to a revival in Boston. But he had never solemnized a wedding. He practiced marrying his father and mother, finally got Miss Brinkman and Mr. Hoffman as his first clients. Last week the Hoffmans honeymooned confident that they were legally married, for, as Mrs. Hoffman admitted to vigilant newshawks a week after the ceremony, they had been married by a grownup minister in 1936, went to the altar a second time to give Rev. Charles Jaynes Jr. “experience” (and publicity).
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