Religion: Idiom

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More than half a century ago, a Manhattan rector refused to perform in his church Lie burial service of an actor who had been greatly loved by his fellow stage-folk. He suggested, however, that there was a little church around the corner which might.

At that time, Joseph Jefferson was the most famous actor on Broadway. Said he: "God bless the Little Church Around the Corner." His remark became the sobriquet of the church and an English idiom.

Last week, actors of high and low degree, literati, publicists crowded into the Church of the Transfiguration (for that is its official name), listened to John Drew; Canon Dwelly of Liverpool Cathedral assisted at the unveiling of a window to the memory of Joseph Jefferson. On it the idiom is inscribed.

This church belongs to that part of the Protestant Episcopal Church known as the "Anglo-Catholic wing." Its present rector is Dr. Randolph Ray, a genial ecclesiastic who was once a journalist.