St. John's Dean

In the Protestant Episcopal Church a dean is not a bishop's pawn, but deans and bishops go together. Where there is a bishop, there is a cathedral (in most cases); where a cathedral is, there is a dean. Since deans and bishops must see each other constantly to do ghostly and secular business together, it is well that they should dwell together in charity. Not always is this the case. Last winter Manhattan's Bishop William Thomas Manning, high-church authoritarian, fell out with Dean Howard Chandler Robbins, broad-church independent (TIME, Jan. 14). Said Dean Robbins: "There is a fundamental difference of opinion as to the rights of the dean." Dean Robbins resigned, became professor of pastoral theology at General Theological Seminary, Manhattan, principal training school of Episcopal deacons.

So deanless since May has been the great (37-years-abuilding) Cathedral of St. John the Divine. But last week Bishop Manning nominated as Dean Robbins' successor Dr. Milo Hudson Gates, vicar of the Chapel of the Intercession in Manhattan. On Nov. 26 the Cathedral's board of trustees will meet, consider the nomination and vote.

Dr. Gates is a close friend of Bishop Manning. Short, round, bespectacled, 63, with plump, mild face and greyish head, he dislikes to be called high-church, prefers "oldfashioned Episcopalian." He has been head of the parish of the Intercession more than 25 years. Born in Gardner, Mass., he is a graduate of Amherst (nine years before Calvin Coolidge), the General Seminary, St. Stephen's College. He is known as a good preacher, scholar of church architecture, president of the Sanctity of Marriage Society which seeks to keep divorced persons from remarrying in the Church, 32nd-degree Mason, national chaplain of the National Association of Masonic Square Clubs. The Editing Committee for the recent revision of the Prayer Book (TIME, Oct. 21) listed Dr. Gates as a member, but he could not go to Boston to read proof. He declared he trusted implicitly in the Boston committee members.

Dr. Gates last week gave his congregation jovial news. Said he: "Saints are everywhere. Everyone here is a saint. In visiting prisons I find saints. A saint is anybody in the world trying to do the best he can with the help of God."