David Virtue on lawsuits and church closings in the DCNY

From VirtueOnline:

If you doubt my words, consider what is happening in the DIOCESE OF CENTRAL NEW YORK where Bishop Skip Adams won the property of The Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton and is now going after the will of a former member who died in 1986 leaving behind money in a trust fund for his parish. The diocese wants to get its hands on that so it can prop up a number of failing parishes. So it's back to court they go. Last year, the Diocese sued for Good Shepherd to leave the church building on Conklin Avenue. In December, a state Supreme Court judge ruled in their favor.

But the victory is pyrrhic because the bishop faces half a dozen churches or more that will shortly have to close. They include Trinity, which claims 350 members but has an ASA of 40. Emmanuel in Elmira, (ASA 16), Grace in Elmira, (ASA 98), St. John's in Elmira Heights, (ASA 18), St. Matthew's in Horseheads, (ASA 98), Christ Church in Wellsburg (ASA 13), and Grace Church in Waverly (ASA 28). Total: 311. Together they will not make up the departing congregation of Good Shepherd. These seven churches have Plate & Pledge amounts in 2007 of $70,000; 24,000; 140,000; 14,000; 130,000; 12,000; and 28,000 respectively.\