Anglican Curmudgeon
March 17, 2010
Tale of the Dog in the Manger
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."
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. 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.
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"
[The above article has been edited for brevity. To read the entire article, please follow the link below]
The URL for this story is:
http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2010/03/dog-in-manger-ii-good-shepherd.html
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