The Dog in the Manger (II): Good Shepherd

In praesepi faeni pleno decumbebat Canis. Venit Bos ut comedat faenum, cum Canis, confestim sese erigens, tota voce elatravit. Cui Bos: “Dii te, cum ista tua invidia, perdant (inquit): nec enim faeno ipse vesceris, nec me vesci sines.”

[In a manger full of hay a dog was lying. There entered an ox to eat the hay, when the dog at once rose up and barked as loudly as he could. Said the ox to the dog: "May the gods destroy you and that envy of yours, for you yourself do not eat the hay, and you do not let me eat it."]

THE MORAL. Envy pretends to no other Happiness than what it derives from the Misery of other People, and will rather eat nothing itself than not to starve those that would.

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[Note: Part I of this series is here.]

After being granted summary judgment in its lawsuit against the parish of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton, New York, the Diocese of Central New York, through its Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Gladstone "Skip" Adams, served notice on the parish rector and his spouse, the Revs. Matt and Anne Kennedy, that they had to vacate the church property -- including the rectory, which was home to the Kennedys and their four children -- on extremely short notice. (You may read more about the details of the forced move here.)

One might think that the Diocese had an urgent and pressing need for the parish property, because of the abruptness of the notice. One would be wrong. The buildings were padlocked; agents for the Diocese even took down the signs which referred the homeless to the new temporary location of the parish's weekly soup kitchen. Through the bounteous intervention of the local Catholic Church and its monsignor, the Kennedys and their flock (both literal and spiritual) were soon relocated in a much larger, newer and better-equipped premises, complete with a four-bedroom rectory and rooms for meetings and Sunday school classes. Life picked up for them, and soon the Church of the Good Shepherd was boasting a higher Sunday attendance than ever (more than double what it had been when the Kennedys first came to Binghamton).

Now comes word from Binghamton that the Diocese has sold the church. Before going on to the details, let us first look at some pictures. Here is the exterior:

And here is a picture of the sanctuary:

Now, thanks to Father Tony Seel of the DCNY blog, here is what is known of the sale of the building:

Demonstrating their all-inclusive love, the DCNY has sold the church building of the former Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd to a Muslim group. You remember the pecusa claims of inclusive love - the kind that puts into contracts that buildings vacated by departing congregations can never be sold back to Anglican congregations. But they have no problem selling buildings to Muslims.

And curiously enough, under New York law the sale will not be final until that State's Attorney General has been duly notified of it, and signs off on it (h/t: a reader, via Religion Clause):

The New York Religious Corporations Law, Sec. 12(a)(1), requires religious corporations to obtain court approval for sale, mortgage or lease of real property. The procedures for court approval, in Sec. 511 of the Not-For-Profit Corporation Law, call for the court to require at least 15 days notice to the attorney general.

[UPDATE 03/17/2010: Father Seel also quoted Father Kennedy about the transformation he recently saw in his old church, made by the purchasers:

Just learned that the Diocese of CNY sold our former building to Muslims. Heard rumors before but today I passed by and saw that the doors were painted green. There was a crane there removing the cross from the bell-tower and hanging over the back door to the parking lot was the following sign "Islamic Awareness Center"

Here is a picture of the church as transformed, via Pat Dague at Transfigurations:



In court the Diocese's complaint alleged that the parish was no longer using the property for the purposes for which its Episcopal ancestors had acquired and built it, and had spent money to maintain it over the years. But as we see, this was the hypocrisy of the dog in the manger. The Diocese could not put the property to any such use; it lacked sufficient parishioners to support the property. So under the twisted and hypocritical logic of the Dennis Canon, the Diocese is seen as upholding the purposes of the original donors better by letting the property become -- what, a mosque? -- rather than allowing it to be used by those who were more faithful to that tradition than was Bishop Adams. (The hypocrisy in central and western New York does not seem to be confined just to Episcopalians.)

[UPDATE (Cont.): Over at the MCJ, Christopher Johnson adds this very telling point:

The Curmudgeon points out that other churches have done this sort of thing. But there’s a major difference. Other churches have sold empty buildings. But to my knowledge, no allegedly-Christian church has ever gone to court to evict a thriving, Christian parish from its meeting house only to turn around and sell the building to non-Christians.

Exactly right, MCJ. - END UPDATE]

This is one of the principal reasons I cannot subscribe to the leftwing lurches of the Episcopal Church (USA). Those on the left are incapable of perceiving the hypocrisy between what they profess and what they do. They move in with their agenda, and inevitably make things much worse for the Church than they were before. And as the Church slowly fails in its great mission, dragged down by the enormous expense of unmitigated lawsuits, and led by people who would rather see Muslims than Anglicans make use of their property, they refuse to accept any responsibility whatsoever for the decline.

Aesop had their number over 2,500 years ago.