Most of us will often have encountered discussions of whether librarianship is or is not a profession, which sometimes go on, and on …, on the question to what acknowledged professions it can then justifiably be compared. Many are adduced, but rarely or never mentioned is the one profession to which I myself believe that librarianship can best be compared — that of the clergy. I could never see librarians as being in essence very much like physicians, or nurses, or engineers, or lawyers, or pilots, or good teachers, or even architects, though perhaps a little like accountants, but they *are* very much like priests, it seems to me, in very many respects. Fletcher was pretty much on the mark in his inclination to look at library systems and services as a kind of religion. And indeed, if they were already a religion back then, such may well be even more the case now than it was in his time.