It’s a miracle!
The Union Church of Bay Ridge is bucking the trend — instead of closing due to maintenance costs, it’s getting a facelift.
The faithful are putting a new roof on the century-old church and leasing unused space to community groups, according to church leaders. The move is an effort to expand the shrinking congregation’s reach into the community, the pastor said.
“This is just too much church for our size congregation,” said interim pastor Moira Ahearne. “We have a lot of space — the trick is figuring out how to use it. In its heyday [the church] was amazing — there were arts, music, consciousness-raising groups for women. Those are the kinds of things were hoping to bring more of.”
Once attended by hundreds of families, the church on Ridge Boulevard and 80th Street now sees about 35 people on a Sunday, Ahearne said.
Still, the congregation is slapping on a new, $250,000 roof ahead of the interior renovation, said church council president Carmelo DiBartolo.
To fund the work, the Union Church sold a house of worship it owned two blocks away to private academy Bay Ridge Prep for $4.2 million, Ahearne said. The church had been renting the building to the school for nearly 15 years.
To attract more people from outside the congregation, the church will subdivide its massive main hall into smaller rooms that can house community groups. Currently, the church is home to a secular day care, a chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous, and the Bay Ridge Food Co-op. The church provided much-needed space for the co-op, which did not have a big budget for rent and pays a nominal fee to the church, mainly to cover the cost of running a refrigerator, one co-op member said.
“We were always looking for places to meet — they’re very hard to find at an affordable cost,” said Kristin Miller, who is also a church congregant of 12 years. “The point of the church is to serve in the community and open its doors to the community, and that’s what it’s doing.”
One architect who worships at the church has created a set of possible designs for the new interior, but the congregation will look at a few designs before committing, Ahearne said.
The renovation and community outreach are part of a larger redevelopment the church is undergoing, a process that she said will certainly outlast any construction projects.
“The question is ‘How do we get people reinvested?’ ” Ahearne said. “It’s about patience and learning to be humble, and this is a first step.”
