Religion: The Marmion Brothers

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Without being conspicuous about it, Gresham and Bill Marmion of Houston stuck pretty close together and helped each other out as brothers are supposed to.

When their father and mother both had major operations that put a strain on the family budget, Gresham Marmion, the elder of the two, dropped out of high school and took a job so that brother Bill could finish. Bill went on to Rice Institute, where he studied engineering before deciding in his second year to switch to the ministry. He graduated with a B.A. degree and entered Virginia Theological Seminary.

Meanwhile, Gresham was hurrying to catch up. He managed to get into the University of Texas without finishing high school, and graduated with a degree in business administration. Then, after a few months as a salesman, he decided that Bill had been right about what to do with his life. Gresham, too, entered Virginia Theological Seminary, and shared a room with brother Bill.

Ordained in the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Marmions were assigned to small Texas churches, and in the summers they served as codirectors of a church camp for children. The Church called them into farther fields. Gresham went to Washington, D.C., to Port Arthur, Texas, and then to the Church of the Incarnation in Dallas. Bill went to Birmingham, and three years ago became rector of St. Andrew's Church in Wilmington, Del.

This week the Rev. Charles Gresham Marmion Jr., 48, preached his last sermon at the Church of the Incarnation. On Feb. 2 he will be consecrated Bishop of Kentucky, with his brother as one of the attending presbyters. A month or so later, the Rev. William Henry Marmion, 46, will be consecrated Bishop of Southwestern Virginia—thus making the third set of brother-bishops in the Episcopal Church.†