William Howard Melish

The Reverend William Howard Melish (11 May 1910 – 15 June 1986) was a 20th-century American Episcopalian and social leader, driven from his Brooklyn church by the Episcopalian bishop of Long Island in the 1950s during McCarthyism in a decade-long controversy due to his association with the USSR and CPUSA.

Melish immediately and publicly opposed the list, telling the New York Times that: the National Council... "was prepared to fight through the courts any such imputation of our loyalty... We are American citizens who stand for good relations between the United States and the Soviet Union as the key to peace...

It has always been the right of American citizens under the Constitution to discuss and, if need be, criticize the foreign policy of the United States.

In 1957, Bishop James P. DeWolfe of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island closed the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn in 1957 and ousted Melish, who had taken over from his father in 1949.

On June 24, 1957, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department, found in favor of the church.

[7] On March 26, 1958, the Supreme Court of Kings County, New York, heard Rector, Holy Trinity v. Melish.

He also advocated peaceful co-existence with the USSR, which in July 1948 formed part of the foreign plank of the platform of the Progressive Party (United States, 1948).