This is the tomb and effigy of William Thomas Manning, the 10th Bishop of New York. He worked to finish the nave of the cathedral. The tomb of Carrara marble is by Constantin Antonovici. Bishop William Thomas Manning (b. 1866 England – d. New York 1948) studied theology at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn. He was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1891. He was a priest in California, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee before he became a rector of Trinity parish in New York City, in 1908. He served as Bishop of New York from 1921 until he retired in 1946.
Bishop William Thomas Manning (b. 1856 Northampton, England d. NYC 1949) was New York's Episcopal Bishop and one of the builders of he Cathedral of St. John the Divine. He immigrated to America as a boy and lived for a time in California. As an adult, he graduated from the University of the South and later became an Episcopal priest First he was rector at a church in Redwood, CA. He served at two churches in Tennessee before coming to Trinity Church in NYC in 1903.He reduced Trinity's debt from $5 million to $100 thousand. In 1920 he was elected Bishop of New York, overcoming those who opposed him because he was British-born. As a strong opponent of divorce, he refused to permit a priest to marry a woman who was divorced. He attacked the Roman Catholic Church for annulling the marriage of Consuelo Vanderbilt and the Duke of Marlborough. Manning hailed the abdication of King Edward VIII because the abdication supported 'Christian marriage and Christian moral ideas.' Manning banned service at St. Marks in the Bowery in which women danced barefooted in diaphanous gowns. He termed it 'dancing and paganism.' He opposed the NYC Board of Education's appointment of Bertrand Russell to teach math at City College. Manning said Russell was a 'defender of adultery and a disbeliever in God.' Russell was appointed anyway by a vote of 11 to 7. A judge later voided the appointment. In 1930 Manning ejected Judge Ben B. Lindsey from St. John the Divine for interrupting services. The Judge had stood to object when Manning had publicly criticized him for advocating 'companionate marriage.' Manning believed the Episcopal church was 'catholic in its faith' and that its heritage of the Apostolic succession prevented it from complete union with other Protestant churches unless they accepted this succession. This pleased high church adherents, but caused consternation among 'low church' people. Manning believed in evolution and opposed Prohibition. Manning supported Franklin D. Roosevelt in the New Deal, but opposed him when Roosevelt tried to pack the Supreme Court. In 1939, he denounced Russia as an ally of Germany, but when Germany invaded, he supported aid for Russia. Manning was a great supporter of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, but was not without his critics, who denounced his 'Sports Bay' in the cathedral as secular. He accepted the menorah lights gift from Adolph S. Ochs (publisher of the NY Times) in 1930. Before the stock market crash of 1929, Manning had raised 12 million to build the cathedral. Not long before he died, he favored universal military training and in 1949, he condemned the conviction of Hungarian cleric Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty by the Hungarian Communists.
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