Religion: Ave Atque Vale

The upper west side of Manhattan, an area thick with university buildings and theological seminaries, is dominated by two great churches—the towering Rockefeller-built Riverside Church and the huge, unfinished Protestant Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Last week each made news.

Baptist Arrival. Plain-talking, liberal Harry Emerson Fosdick wanted to retire three years ago as pastor of the Riverside Church. His trustees persuaded him to wait out the war, later agreed to fix the date as his 68th birthday: May 24, 1946. Last week, with that date at hand, the congregation announced his successor, Robert James McCracken, 42, professor of church...

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