This book has not aged well. ( )

This is a near-great Episcopal novel. The novel opens with the mantle of great ministry being passed from the dying bishop of a great city (New York?) to his grandson, Hilary Laurens. As he takes over a cardinal parish, we are led through the various challenges to his ministry, from comforting a family whose son committed suicide to dealing with women who find him much too attractive, to embarking on a program of dealing with tenement housing and their dwellers in a neighborhood close to the parish church. There is a love story with a socialite. He deals kindly with a ne'er do well brother, and frets quite a bit about the oncoming World War II. He deals with a vestry, some supportive, others not, and gives thought to but does not finish the problem with pew rentals. This book is from a different era of morality, but it is well-worth the read. ( )