sheepshead-methodist-2-2010.jpg
Yesterday Sheepshead Bites had a post on a story it’s been tracking concerning how the current congregation of the church at 3087 Ocean Avenue intends to tear down the steeples on its 142-year-old building. An organization called the Bay Improvement Group (BIG) is advocating for their retention and tried at one point to convince the church’s owners to pursue landmark status: “We at BIG tried in the early 1990′s pleading with their Board of Directors/Trustees to Landmark the Church and they were sadly, ignorantly afraid of ‘Landmark status’ even though we tried to persuade them with experts in Church preservation, Engineers & Architects and myself, as an Attorney, to explain the great help they would have in obtaining Landmark status. They could have received State, City, Federal and private grants to restore the Church!” Today The Daily News picks up on the story, and has a quote from the church’s pastor about how the steeples are unsafe and the congregation can’t afford to renovate them: “‘We are concerned really about safety,’ said Pastor Jay Kyung Kim, who said the spires are cracked and leaning precariously. ‘If it falls down, it’s a tragedy.’ He hopes to eventually raise the cash to build new steeples, but has no idea how long that will take.” Sad stuff.
BIG Pleads For Savior Of Methodist Church [Sheepshead Bites]
Historic Steeples of 142-Year-Old United Methodist Church Will be Torn Down [NY Daily News]
Photo from Sheepshead Bites.


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. Peter, just for the record, yes, I am, and yes, I do.

    Also for the record, I do not agree with my friend Minard on this, but he is entitled to his opinion, and everyone else is also entitled to disagree. He is quite able to take his lumps, and give them, as well. It is, however, quite a stretch to go from one man’s opinion to labelling every preservationist, or the movement itself, as “intellectually bankrupt”, the same tired old screed certain people bring up every single time. Preservation is important. Finding a way to preserve the past should at least be a consideration in cases like this. If it cannot be done, and no outside source is able to step in and pay for it, then there’s not much we can do, and that is a shame. Most preservationists feel that the effort should at least be made to see if it is possible, and tearing something down, whether a church, its steeple, a home, or any other kind of viable and salvageable building, should be the last resort.

  2. I think that Peter18’s post is very thoughtful and gives a clear and sympathetic view of the churches situation. I am also quite sympathetic with Jester, who clearly is involved with making the complicated and difficult decisions involved with the disbursement of funds for church maintenance as part of his role in his own church. While I certainly understand the points that MM and Bxgrl made about the value of the beautiful, sacramental art and architecture to a congregation and community, I think that this community has certain tough decisions to be made and that their priority, when it comes down to the tough decisions, has to be the safety of the community, the protection of their own church from liability, and the survival not of the structure but of themselves as a spiritual community. I thought that the tone of the article was disrespectful and I find Minard’s comments implying that the pastor was dishonest way off the mark.
    The article also states that the community has shrunk to 100 elderly people.

  3. Wow. Minard, I don’t usually post, but I feel compelled to address some of the comments you have just made. I believe that preserving old buildings is an important goal for our society, and for that reason I often agree with the opinions you post here. But I think you are way off base imputing the stereo-type of money-grabbing pastors or priests (of which there are of course many actual examples) to the leader of this congregation without any reason. If this church is at all similar to the small churches I have attended and been a member of during my life, the pastor is likely a hard working, well intentioned person, and it would be very difficult for them to raise $40,000 to fix the building’s steeples, let alone $4 million for a new facility. And it is a serious question whether fixing steeples would be a worthwhile use of the funds if they were able to raise them.

    The religious buildings in this City and the country as a whole were all built at a time when more people went to church and contributed a much greater portion of their income to the church. Churches were the center of community life in a way they are not now, and the congregations felt it was a good use of their hard earned income to build structures to the glory of God that reflected the strength of their faith. Just because many Christians and other religious people no longer feel that this is the best way to act on their faith does not mean that they are greedy or lazy. Quite the contrary.

    You are imposing a cartoon stereo-type of modern mega-churches and their leaders (most of which are in sub-urbs and look like malls) on a small church in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. I can almost guarantee that neither the pastor of this church or the members of this congregation have any interest in undertaking a project to build themselves a mega-church-like structure costing millions of dollars. They’re foremost interest here is avoiding being sued when a piece of masonry falls off the roof of their church and hits someone and puts the congregation in even worse financial straights than they already are. I also bet that they would love to be able to keep the steeples of their church, but don’t see a viable way to do so. It’s possible they aren’t being as proactive as they could be in finding grants and other resources, but if you feel that way, you should join the congregation and help them. And in general, if you (and Montrose, too) feel so strongly about preserving historic houses of worship, I certainly hope you are members somewhere and doing your part. Otherwise, you don’t have much credibility on this issue.

    I don’t think accusing the members and leader of a small church in our community of the things you have accused them of is helpful or appropriate, regardless of how passionate you feel about historic preservation.

1 2 3 22