Story still out there: From Episcopal church to Islamic center

Marcia Segelstein
OneNewsNow Columnist
5/18/2010

Since 1879 the Church of the Good Shepherd stood at #79 Conklin Avenue in Binghamton, NY. In February of this year, the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York sold the building to Imam Muhammad Affify. The cross has been removed from the top of the bell tower, the red doors have been repainted green, a windowpane cross has been painted over, and all Christian symbols have been eradicated. That is symbolic in itself considering that the building now houses the Islamic Awareness Center.

But this isn't a story about a congregation that had dwindled down to nothing, leaving the Diocese no choice but to sell church property to the highest bidder. Quite the contrary.

In 2002, the Rev. Matt Kennedy and his wife, Anne, were assigned to take over Good Shepherd Episcopal Church. It was hardly a thriving place at the time, with a small, aging congregation. But over time, under Fr. Kennedy's leadership, the church grew. As he wrote on the church blog: "We'd finally begun to have some impact in the neighborhood, drawing people to church through our soup kitchen and block parties. Our weekly Bible studies were packed with new people and we were, shockingly to us, beginning to draw an increasing number of students from BU [Binghamton University]...by January 2009 Good Shepherd was healthier, younger, larger than she'd been in decades – and she was slowly, steadily, growing."

But as the church grew, so did a rift between the traditionally-minded congregation and priest of Good Shepherd and the hierarchy of the Episcopal Church. Like so many Episcopalians, Fr. Kennedy and his flock watched as the Episcopal Church slowly but surely slid into heresy, culminating in late 2003 with the consecration of a practicing homosexual bishop, Gene Robinson. the rest

For the record, the Diocese of Central New York sold -- or perhaps sold out -- to the Imam for a mere $50,000. It is astonishing to note the lengths the Episcopal Church, under the leadership of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, went to in order to keep a "traditional" congregation from remaining in its buildings.

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