James Barron's piece "A Difficult Passage from Church to Condo" focuses on the transformation of the former First Church of Christ, Scientist on Central Park into condominium. In the process, he recaps other church-to-condo transactions, stating "Last month, a developer filed plans to build an 18-story condominium building on the site of the former Our Lady of Vilnius Roman Catholic Church, on Broome Street near the Holland Tunnel. " The article thereby groups us with "...congregations (that) struggle to afford the maintenance of buildings that were designed to hold far more congregants than now attend services, " but we were never one of those. At the time of its closing, Our Lady of Vilnius was solvent with a positive bank balance. The roof could have been repaired had the archdiocese given permission for the repair, as insurance monies were available and a donor had stepped forward to fund the shortfall.
We are going to hear a lot about dwindling congregations and responsible stewardship as all things are made new. Will they all be accurate?
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