The Bishop's Mantle

Hilary Laurens, a young Episcopal priest about 1939, has recently returned to his hometown, somewhere in the American heartland. Upon receiving sudden word that his grandfather, the Bishop of that diocese and the only father he's known, has suddenly taken ill and is dying, and after pressuring the taxi driver to make haste, Hilary arrives just in time to talk briefly with "Grandy" just before the Bishop's death. But Hilary is able to give the Bishop some good news on his deathbed: Hilary has just been appointed vicar of St. Matthews, a large church in a "great eastern city", and thus can perpetuate the Bishop's calling. In the course of the book, Hilary, at a time when the United States was, for the time being, neutral in the World War raging in Europe, needs first to cope with the multiple challenges of becoming a vicar of a major church himself just at the moment his grandfather dies (the Bishop's Mantle has fallen to him), dealing with the twin callings of a priest to keep his church financially viable, up to date, and yet in keeping with his duty to serve the poor, falling in love with the daughter of a wealthy church patron, and still provide pastoral service to women in his flock, not all of whom want a priest so much as male company, and then finally deal with the odious consequences of the events of December 1941.