Can a Government Shut Down a Church? In Avondale Estates, the Answer is Apparently "Yes."

Posted By - Doug Richards

Last Updated On: 7/29/2010 7:56:34 AM



Lodged at the dead end of a street near a busy train line, the vacant cinderblock building was, until this spring, the Christ Liberty Family Life Center. Its doors abruptly closed when the city of Avondale Estates ordered the church to get out of this building.

The city shut down the church because Avondale Estate requires a three acre plot of land for churches -- a standard not required in other jurisdictions. Avondale Estates city manager Clay Brown says the law has been on the books more than twenty years.

"To me it's a little bit odd," said Joe Garigulo, the property owner and church's landlord. "Especially since you're dealing with a vacant building on a dead end street that backs up to a railroad. surrounded by industrial."

In a statement, the church's attorneys say "Avondale Estates puts this onerous requirment only on religious facilities and not on other places of public assembly." The church is suing the city in Federal court.

"I don't see anything wrong with people trying to get a little bit of Jesus," said Garigulo. The church's pastor was unavailable for comment.

The Christ Liberty Family Life Center's effects are still inside the vacant building -- pews, a pulpit, musical instruments, a Bible. Once at more than fifty, the church congregation has dwindled to about fifteen, according to the church's Chicago attorney Lee McCoy.

Although the church no longer meets in the cinderblock building, what's left of its congregation has relocated across the street.

It now shares the adjacent building space with a metal recycling company that just happens to be outside the jurisdiction of the city of Avondale Estates.

From: http://www.11alive.com/news/watercooler/story.aspx?storyid=148092&catid=186