Congregation Wants To Sell Soul to Devil-oper
Following a particularly contentious meeting last week between preservationists and members of the congregation, a peaceful resolution over the fate of the United Methodist Church in Bay Ridge looks increasingly unlikely. During a meeting last night at the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church, the church congregation made it clear to me that they are not…
Following a particularly contentious meeting last week between preservationists and members of the congregation, a peaceful resolution over the fate of the United Methodist Church in Bay Ridge looks increasingly unlikely. During a meeting last night at the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church, the church congregation made it clear to me that they are not interested in any proposal that includes keeping the church structure,” said City Councilmember Vincent Gentile, who has been pushing to save the 1899 stone structure from destruction. This is particularly ironic given that the congregation applied for a listing on the National Register of Historic Places less than a decade ago. With peace talks having broken down, it’s looking like holy war. A new group, the Committee to Save the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church, was formed this week to try to stop the sale of the church to a developer and and almost certain disfigurement, if not demolition. If there are any Bay Ridgers reading, we’d be curious to know the extent to which this is dividing the community. From what we gather, the congregation has only itself to blame, having rejected offers of help from St. Bartholomew’s in Manhattan a couple of years ago to help it grow increase its membership and financial resources. The Committee is holding a meeting on Tuesday, April 24th at 220 Ovington Avenue at 7 p.m. to gather ideas & support from the community at large. For more information, contact Kathleen Walker at 917-971-8387 or email SaveTheGreenChurch AT yahoo DOT com.
No Savior for ‘Green Church’ [Bay Ridge Courier]
Bay Ridge Church Selling Its Soul For Condos [Brownstoner]
Thanks to the OED, here’s a quote from Caxton’s 1481 translation of the bible:
“Whan dauid had regned vii. yere in Ebron he grewe and amended moche this cyte.”
So over six hundred years ago you could grow a city. You can definitely grow membership. 11:22 is at least honest about simply not liking that use of “grow,” but 11:45 thinks he or she knows better than Caxton. Can you both find something real to give Mr. B a hard time about instead of this bullshit?
The job of the Church is to serve God and spread His word and love. If being situated in a good looking building helps this mission, then that is great. But it is wrong for the preservationists to expect the congregation to finance the upkeep of an expensive building on their own. If they care that much, let them buy the building. Building maintenance and providing good scenery are not the reason the Church exists.
It’s too bad there weren’t so many people in Bay Ridge fighting to keep all the grand old houses there, from being torn down in past decades! There are a lot of beautiful old houses there, but a LOT that were lost, too, houses that were older than this church.
I live in Bay Ridge, but don’t attend any of the churches there. I know most residents are very proud of our fair share of religious architecture in the “Borough of Churches”. So it surprises me to hear about the congregation wanting to sell (unless of course the congregation are not all residents of Bay Ridge). That church has been there forever, so I can imagine the cost of upkeeping of a an old bldg could drive a shrinking congregation to possibly change their mind.
I didn’t think the real estate in Bay Ridge was such a hot commodity that a developer wanted to add to it (in light of the general slowing sales of new developements). It’s definitely a nice hood, but as far as I can tell it’s not a crazy-hot-like-Park-Slope-market yet. Too bad the developer can’t convert the actually church bldg to be residential.
whether you’re trying to grow, or increase, it is just hard to find a lot of Methodists in Bay Ridge today.
The congregation is tiny, the church is huge, the green stone is coming off in sandwich-size chunks, and the city’s population is growing more and more secular, if not downright hostile to religion. New Yorkers will be seeing a lot of this. Presbyterians and Lutherans are also way down in their church-attendance. The Archdiocese is closing down and demolishing a bunch of Catholic churches.
Relatively few are landmarked, the rest are sometimes worth more dead than alive.
The church endures on faith, the church buildings do not. They needs tons of cash for repairs and maintennce.
I’m really sorry to say that this is just the begining of a wave of historic church demolitions.
According to the Massey Knakal website, this property is in contract.
Fair ‘nuf
FYI – You help the church “increase” its membership. You don’t help them “grow” it.
‘grow its membership ‘ – sorry to pick on trivia….but this usage of the verb grow is getting more grating by the day.I know, I know – quite fashionable in financial and political workd to use ‘grow’ these days.
Now – what is wrong with ‘increase its membership’?