[/media-credit]
The Lower Manhattan Community Church, formerly called Mosaic Manhattan, has been holding the majority of its Sunday worship services at Battery Park City’s P.S. 89 since 2003. But last Sunday, Feb. 26, the church’s congregation convened on an upper floor at 10 Desbrosses St. in Tribeca, a space that carries a weekly rental fee nearly five times the cost of the school space.
The Downtown church, along with dozens of others across the city have been in limbo over the past weeks due to a municipal law that bans them from holding worship services in city public schools. In the mid-1990s, the Bronx Household of Faith, an evangelical Christian group that for years has met at P.S. 15 in the Bronx, took the city to court to contest the ruling. The Bronx church lost the case that time around but ultimately won an injunction from the courts, which in turn exempted all the churches from the policy. The case lay dormant until last summer, when a panel of federal judges ruled in favor of the city’s policy. The Bronx church has since contested the ruling on the grounds of the first amendment right to free exercise of religion.
As the Bronx Household of Faith and the D.O.E. continue to fight out the debate in court, the Lower Manhattan Community Church has been kept in suspense each week about whether they can continue holding services in the school auditorium at P.S. 89. Though the church was technically entitled to the space last Sunday, the pastors weren’t notified of the latest court ruling in favor of the churches until late Friday afternoon.
“It was a bummer – a few minutes after the news came from the court, we got an approved permit from the D.O.E., but at that point, we felt it was too late to back out,” said Pastor Ryan Holladay.
Holladay and members of the congregation, most of whom live in Battery Park City and the Financial District, are hoping to be able to continue Sunday prayer and accompanying children’s activities the school.
“It’s the ideal venue for us – it’s got a performing arts theater for adult-gathering and space for separate children’s classrooms in the cafeteria,” said Holladay.
The legal battle, however, begs the larger question of whether the church has equal rights to public space as do other nonprofit groups, and whether the government should determine what constitutes worship and what qualifies as religious instruction. Cara Marriott, another pastor at the Lower Manhattan Community Church, and others don’t believe the city or the state has the right to make such a decision. Marriott believes that, so long as the church is paying rent and following the school’s rules of the use of the space, there’s no harm.
“We pretty much come in and leave, and it’s like we were never there,” said Marriott. “I’m a big defender of the separation of church and state, and I respect that. But I’m also a taxpayer in New York City, and I think any tenant or renter in public space is a good thing for us as a city right now.”
“I don’t think anybody walks by a school on a Sunday morning and sees a sign out front and thinks, ‘that must be the official religion of the New York City D.O.E.’ – it’s just kind of far-fetched for me,” said Holladay.
P.S. 89 Principal Veronica Najjar didn’t return repeated calls for comment.
At 10 a.m. on Sunday, the group gathered in an airy, upper floor room at 10 Desbrosses St. A change in venue might not be such a bad thing after all, according to several members of the congregation, who said they actually felt more spiritually inspired in the church’s temporary home.
“I love it – being able to see such a beautiful landscape of New York is just awesome,” said Water Street resident Carla Brown, who sings in the church’s band. “You just kind of feel more connected with the outside world.”
“To step into a place with no windows, you’re almost talking about all this stuff in a vacuum,” commented North End Avenue resident Chris Green, who has been attending Sunday service for four months with his wife and child. “It’s kind of a nice change to have windows and some level of elevation here.”
Other members of the church, however, said they missed their community base at P.S. 89, mainly because of convenience.
“[The new location] is just not as ideal for families,” said Allison Vance, who lives in a residence directly above P.S. 89. “It’s just not where people live.”
Salley Whitman, whose children attend P.S. 89, argued that the city ban would deprive the school of much-needed revenue.
“I think it’s quite a stretch to say that, because we pay rent to meet in a school building on the weekends when the school is empty, that it’s a church and state issue,” she said.
Bob Townley, executive director of Manhattan Youth Downtown Community Center, who said his organization is starved for venues for its youth activities, argued that school space is limited as is and that religious groups should hold its services elsewhere.
“It’s not possible in New York City, in my opinion, to have religious organizations using school [space],” said Townley. “There are issues of church and state, and it’s just not practical.”
The Lower Manhattan Community Church, meanwhile, plans to ride out the storm at the Desbrosses St. location until further notice from the courts. Marriott said she’s confident the issue will be resolved one way or the other.
“We have peace about it – our church has been through a lot in our eight-year existence, and we always make a way,” said Marriott. “I don’t know why this would be any different.”
