Religion: Street-Cleaning Bishop

Sundays the Rev. Eustachio Paolicelli preaches in Brooklyn. Weekdays he cleans Brooklyn’s streets. Last week Preacher-Street Cleaner Paolicelli celebrated his 38th birthday in notable fashion: at Jamaica, L. I., he was consecrated a bishop in “The Church of God of A. J. Tomlinson.” Features of the seven-hour ceremony were vocal selections from the Sanitation Department’s glee club (in which Bishop Paolicelli sings bass), an inspirational address by Deputy Sanitation Commissioner Matthew J. Diserio.

Next day the new bishop was back in his gutter.

Under lithe, fiery Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson of Cleveland, Tenn., the Church of God of A. J. Tomlinson seceded from the Church of God in 1923, now claims a million communicants in 23 countries. Outsiders know its excitable members as “holy rollers.” It “emphasizes salvation, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Spirit, and healing by faith if you have it. Otherwise call a doctor.”

Dark, eupeptic Eustachio Paolicelli acquired that faith at 17, when he was a recent immigrant from Italy. Now he and his family never go near doctors. Because he gets no pay for being a bishop, Brother Paolicelli (as he prefers to be called) will keep on sweeping streets. In his spare time he will have episcopal jurisdiction over the 400 Italian congregations of the Church of God of A. J. Tomlinson, in the U. S. and abroad. Of little concern is it to Bishop Paolicelli that he wears a white-wing’s cap instead of a mitre. Says he : “The Apostle Peter fished, so why shouldn’t a bishop clean streets?”