Associated Press - MA City Allows Church to Meet in School, Despite Church-State Concerns

By Jay Lindsay, Associated Press Writer
February 8, 2005

BOSTON --The city of Peabody has agreed to allow a local church to continue renting school space for worship services, despite concerns the arrangement violates the constitutional principle of separation of church and state.

The Living Hope of the Nazarene church will continue meeting in the Capt. Samuel Brown Elementary School under the settlement, announced Tuesday.

The church worshipped in the Brown school on Sundays between February and June last year before the city denied its application for a contract extension. The city said it erred by issuing the contract and the school couldn't be used as a place to propagate a faith.

The church sued last November, claiming it was being discriminated against because it espouses religious views.

Vincent McCarthy, an attorney for the church, said the city was forced to settle because it had clearly violated the Constitution's free speech guarantees.

He cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2001 that religious groups that contribute to the "general welfare" of the community must be granted access to schools if other community groups are given similar access.

To bar the church from using the school building because it promotes a religious message it would be discriminatory, said McCarthy, a lawyer for the American Center for Law and Justice.

"I told (the judge) it was a slam dunk," McCarthy said. "For the Supreme Court, religious speech is as valuable as any speech."

John Davis, an attorney for the city, said the settlement was not a concession that the church would win in court. He said the city is still concerned it is violating constitutional prohibitions against governmental establishment of religion.

Davis said a bigger worry was the steep cost of pursuing the case, which he said would have likely proceeded to the Supreme Court.

"The city recognizes there are costs involved and there are consequences, and what's the down side of letting (the church) in?" Davis said. "No one has ever said the church is a bad tenant."

Calls for comment to the church and Peabody school superintendent Nadine Binkley were not immediately returned Tuesday.

The Living Hope of the Nazarene Church is a ministry of the Beverly Church of the Nazarene. It has an attendance of few dozen people weekly, McCarthy said.