of our hearty support. It is to us, as it must be to
you, a matter of gratification that your selection
commands the hearty approval of our present rector,
Dr. Grosvenor, whose call to another and possibly a
larger field is the sole occasion for the termination of
the pastoral relation which has continued to the
satisfaction of both parties for more than fifteen years.
We are faithfully yours,

Francis Lynde Stetson, Senior Warden.
Montgomery H. Clarkson,
Waldron P. Brown,

George F. Butterworth.

The following reply was shortly thereafter received from Mr. Robbins:

Messrs. Francis Lynde Stetson,

Montgomery H. Clarkson,

W. P. Brown,

Geo. F. Butterworth.

Dear Sirs:

It is with sincere happiness, as well as grateful appreciation of your confidence in me, that I accept your invitation to become the rector of the Church of the Incarnation in the city of New York, beginning my service from the first day of October, 1911.

It is to me, as to you, a matter of hearty gratification that the selection of me commands the approval of your present rector, Dr. Grosvenor, by whose administrations of fifteen years the parish has been so signally benefited. I shall hope to enjoy fully his advice and assistance in carrying on the work which he is to relinquish.

Grateful to you for your expressions of confidence and promises of support, I am, with high regard, Faithfully yours,

Howard Chandler Robbins

June 1st, 1911.

CHAPTER VI

THE PRESENT RECTORATE

HE Rev. Howard C. Robbins assumed charge of

TH

the parish as its fifth rector on October 1st, 1911, and preached in the church on the Sunday following. On the first Sunday in Advent, December 3d, being the sixteenth anniversary of the institution of the former rector, the bishop of the diocese, the Rt. Rev. David H. Greer, D.D., formally instituted Mr. Robbins into the rectorship.

The rector's first greeting to his congregation appears in full in the year book of the parish for 1912. The few events which had taken place since his coming are fully noted, and from that source the following quotation is made:

"Since the first of October, certain changes have occurred which are of importance to the parish history. The Rev. Philip Cook, after three years of devoted services as vicar of the chapel, resigned his position in order to accept a rectorship in San Antonio, Texas; and simultaneously the Rev. Joseph P. Robinson left in order to spend a year in study abroad. The other members of the chapel staff, Miss Fitzmaurice, Miss Emmons, Dr. Evans, and their coadjutors, remain, I am happy to say, in their old places of usefulness and efficiency. It is also a great satisfaction to record that the appointment to the vicarship has been accepted by the Rev. E. M. H. Knapp, formerly assistant at the parish church, who