Ministry of Brooklyn’s “Green
Church” Is Threatened By Community Preservationists
Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, has become the scene of a nasty historic
preservation battle, pitting the parishioners of the Bay Ridge
United Methodist Church against vociferous members of the community.
Besieged by the costs of fruitless efforts to maintain the magnificent,
but crumbling, 109-year old church edifice, known locally as the
“Green Church,” church members have decided to sell
the property to a developer and move into a smaller building,
with the intention to apply the excess proceeds from the sale
of the valuable property to a trust fund that will support the
church’s future ministry to the poor and suffering. Calling
the plans “an outrage,” activists want to “landmark”
the building. However, according to the Brooklyn Eagle
on January 24, Pastor Robert Emerick said that if the church were
landmarked to stop demolition, “some children in the world
will die” because the church will be unable to provide its
services.
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