Religion: Dr. Hart Accepts

Sixteen years ago a handsome young Episcopal rector of Christ Church, Macon, Ga., heard that his name was up for nomination to the Bishopric of Florida. He withdrew his name, protesting that he was “much too young.” Thirteen years later, Oliver James Hart III, now rector of St. John’s (“The Church of the Presidents”) in Washington, D. C., again declined, this time to become Bishop Coadjutor of Tennessee. In the next 16 months he turned down two more bishoprics: the Dioceses of Central New York and Delaware.

Last week President Roosevelt wrote a letter regretting that Dr. Hart had accepted an offer. This one was from Boston’s big, swank Trinity Church (salary: $15,000; communicants: 2,400), to be vacated this fall by another Southern aristocrat, Rev. Arthur Lee (“Little Tui”) Kinsolving, who leaves for modest little Trinity Church at Princeton, N. J. Boston should give Rector Hart another chance to refuse a bishopric, if he wishes to. Before “Tui” Kinsolving (who did not stay long enough), Trinity’s three rectors each became a bishop.

No political parson, Dr. Hart is noted for confining himself to the personal, spiritual needs of his parish. World War II, Term III, Column V, find no place in his sermons. Says he: “There is so little time to bring the comfort and guidance of religion into the daily lives of my congregation . . . [it] cannot be done if one’s theme is political.”