The Battle to Worship in NYC Schools Goes On...

2 Timothy 3:12
"Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution"
Yet another protest is occurring in NYC. The cause? To let the 60 congregations in the Bronx continue to hold their worship services inside public schools and community public housing rooms. Churches such as Infinity Church and Bronx Household of Faith have been using public schools for their Sunday worship services for years but now city lawmakers, along with the Dept of education, have given these congregations until February 12th to find a new house of worship.

Luckily, Pastor Dimas Salaberrios of Infinity Church is not alone. NYC Council member Fernando Cabrera of district 14 in the Bronx is with them every step of the way. Salaberrios pastors his church in the middle of the Bronx River Housing Projects, the poorest in the country and the birth place of hip hop.  Infinity Church was also under the eviction radar up until the City Housing Dept recognized that they weren't under the Dept of Education ruling. This touches home for Salaberrios, who started attending a church as a teen that rented a city public school at the time.

This may look like OWS all over again, but these protests are worth the fight for these 60+ Bronx congregations. These protests all started with the ruling that these congregations would be evicted from the public schools they rent as houses of worship. It’s said that these schools don’t want to be associated with one particular religion or belief system. These protests starting in early December of 2011, with things seemed to have taken a turning point when Councilman Cabrera was arrested, with six other pastors and church leaders, on trespassing charges for not moving from in front of the city’s Law Department on January 5^th.

According to the ruling, the date that these congregations will be evicted is next Sunday, the 12^th. To catch you up with this cause, Park Slope Presbyterian Church rented their space in John Jay High School on Seventh Ave, Brooklyn, up until yesterday. The NY Times reported that there was a feeling of “sadness and disappointment” among the Rev. Matthew Brown’s flock hours after their Sunday service ended. Rev. Brown took the opportunity at getting a space in a nearby parish. Though there was this sadness in the air of the church leaving the place they started eight years ago, the reverend said that there’s a part of him that feels “excited”. But, Park Slope Presbyterian wasn’t the only congregation to move. The Victory Outreach Church of East Harlem had to leave P.S. 57 behind and share with its sister church in Brooklyn. Pastor Tony Valenzuela, and his family, had to move back to their native California after finding that there was no cheaper space to rent. It was a congregation of about 70 people and they celebrated with a farewell service by watching a video of the church’s accomplishments and having a potluck. This church was in the East Harlem neighborhood for eighteen years, helping reformed gang members, addicts, and mothers who lost sons to gun violence.