Exiled members of Bethlehem Lutheran Church took to the street this week, staging a protest outside their shuttered Boerum Hill house of worship.
Since January, Bethlehem Lutheran has been locked out of its Romanesque church at 490 Pacific Street by decree of the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Bethlehem Lutheran officials say that the synod contends that their congregation is “too weak and too small,” and therefore imposed a takeover of the property by synodical administration.
“Because the Lutheran Metropolitan New York Synod has taken our property, kicked everyone out and locked it down, and will not respond to our many overtures the past four months to come together and negotiate peacefully, we must let the public know in order to hold them responsible for their actions,” said Rev. Dr. Norman David, assistant pastor at Bethlehem Lutheran. The protest was held May 13, as this paper went to press.
