Religion: Pastoral Parson

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Genial, white-haired Rev. George B. Gilbert has lived near Middletown, Conn, for 42 years, never moving his residence more than a mile and a half. An Episcopalian, he calls himself a circuit rider. First with a buggy, then with a Model T Ford, now with a big, seven-passenger Nash, he has cared for an area 100 miles square. Three churches claim him in turn every Sunday, one of them giving him hot coffee to go with his picnic lunch: Emmanuel in Killingworth, Epiphany in Durham, St. James in Haddam.

Mr. Gilbert has been chaplain of the Connecticut Senate, sat in its House from 1927 to 1929, has been on the Middletown City Council, is now on its school board. For 25 years he has written for the Rural New-Yorker a homely column, full of health and heart, called "Pastoral Parson and His Country Folks." Sample: "Here comes a man and says . . . 'Can any be possibly saved who are not Episcopalians?' 'Well,' the Parson answers humorously, 'hardly any, perhaps a few choice souls.' " Mr. Gilbert in his youth learned barbering, still cuts his parishioners' locks gratis. He is good at tinkering with automobile motors, also gratis. Lately, singlehanded, he built a wading pool for some of his youngsters.

Last week the Christian Herald decided that, among rural clergymen in the U. S., Middletown's George Gilbert had most to tell about his life. Harper & Brothers, when their Horse and Buggy Doctor was a success last winter, had asked the Christian Herald to discover a parson as kindly and old-fashioned as best-selling Dr. Arthur Emanuel Hertzler. The Protestant monthly (most successful in the U. S.) opened a $250 contest for 500-word descriptions of rural parsons, received 1,000 entries. Paron Gilbert will write, Christian Herald will print serially, and Harpers will publish in toto next spring Parson Gilbert's life story. Tentative title: Horse Sense and Homelike Religion.