Neighbors oppose church's move to quiet Danbury road
Rob Ryser | March 11, 2015
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Photo: H John Voorhees III
Image 5 of 11Barbara Fulton, a librarian at the Long Ridge Library in Danbury, arranges books on a shelf at the library. Fulton is part of a neighborhood association that opposes the plan by Writer's Institute of selling an 18-acre property to an unaffiliated church group. They believe that the church would represent much more traffic and disruption than the current use. Wednesday, March 11, 2015, in Danbury, Conn.
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Barbara Fulton, a librarian at the Long Ridge Library in Danbury, is part of a neighborhood association that opposes the plan by Writer's Institute of selling an 18-acre property to an unaffiliated church group. They believe that the church would represent much more traffic and disruption than the current use. Wednesday, March 11, 2015, in Danbury, Conn.
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DANBURY -- Plans by a decades-old authors' services business to sell its warehouse and 18 acres to a little-known church run by an independent priest will be challenged by neighbors during a public hearing Thursday night.


Residents of Long Ridge Road near the Redding border are concerned the church will overwhelm the rural character of their wooded neighborhood, despite assurances by the church leader that services will be small.

"They said they don't want to grow," said Barbara Fulton, who has lived in the neighborhood for 47 years. "But I have been involved with lots of churches, and there is no church that I know of that doesn't want to grow."

Although neighbors said their argument is not with the church, it doesn't help that little is known about the group.

The pastor of the church, the Rev. Gerardo Zendejas, is a missionary from Mexico who was affiliated up until six months ago with a conservative group known as the Society of St. Pius X that broke with official Roman Catholic doctrine and is now not recognized as part of the church.

But Zendejas has since left that group, known as SSPX, and has formed a church called BRN Associates. Although he and several church members have met with neighborhood opponents, the meetings have not eased their concerns.

"It seems like the more questions we ask, the less satisfaction we get," said Duane Perkins, a city councilman who represents the neighborhood.

"Long Ridge Road is the only designated scenic road in the entire city, and if this thing gets out of hand, we could lose that designation," Perkins said. "We are being told this whole operation is going to be small, and they want us to take their word for it."

There's no need to take their word for it, the lawyer representing the sellers responded on Wednesday. The church has agreed to limit services to twice on Sunday with no more than 35 cars at each service, among other restrictions, as part of any agreement to approve the deal.

"It's unfortunate that people are saying we're going to have 500 cars," said Thomas Beecher, the attorney representing the Institute of Children's Literature, which has owned the property for 40 years. "The fear was this is going to be a mega church, and that is just not the case."

The Institute and BRN are seeking approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals to waive two requirements for a church in the single-family neighborhood zone. One requirement is that a church must be connected to city water and city sewers instead of the wells and septic system on the property. The other requirement is the church must be on a road that is designed for more volume than Long Ridge Road.

The ZBA will hear arguments from both sides at City Hall at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Bryan Judge, the chairman of the Institute, said the church would use less water, produce less waste and draw less traffic than the business he has run there since 1975. During his business' heyday, the Institute had 70 employees driving to work each weekday.

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Someone said in another thread they dropped their attempt to buy the property.

I know that secular news articles are always ridiculous when they try to tackle Catholic topics -- but this one takes the cake.

Let me see if I have this straight. If I decided to trust only this article to get all my information; if I took this article as the Gospel truth, this is what I would believe:

A rogue priest who broke with the "doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church" who isn't recognized "inside or outside" of the Catholic Church, is starting his own church (like Martin Luther) called BRN associates (what a catchy name for a church!).

But that's not all! He's not very forthcoming with satisfying information. He's a bit reticent and keeps his cards close to his chest. And this secretive, rogue priest intends to start a mega church. (What is he, the Antichrist?)

Seriously -- how many mega churches in existence today were started by Catholic priests who recently apostatized? If even one did, I'd be wondering if it was the Antichrist.

Long story short, this article is a complete joke.

Either the devil is behind this story, in which case I would say, "Who says the devil is always subtle?"

Or the ridiculous nature of the article betrays its human (rather than demonic) origin.

Neighbors oppose church's move to quiet Danbury road
Rob Ryser | March 11, 2015
14
 
Photo: H John Voorhees III
Image 5 of 11Barbara Fulton, a librarian at the Long Ridge Library in Danbury, arranges books on a shelf at the library. Fulton is part of a neighborhood association that opposes the plan by Writer's Institute of selling an 18-acre property to an unaffiliated church group. They believe that the church would represent much more traffic and disruption than the current use. Wednesday, March 11, 2015, in Danbury, Conn.
Buy this photo
IMAGE 1 OF 11
Barbara Fulton, a librarian at the Long Ridge Library in Danbury, is part of a neighborhood association that opposes the plan by Writer's Institute of selling an 18-acre property to an unaffiliated church group. They believe that the church would represent much more traffic and disruption than the current use. Wednesday, March 11, 2015, in Danbury, Conn.
Buy this photo
DANBURY -- Plans by a decades-old authors' services business to sell its warehouse and 18 acres to a little-known church run by an independent priest will be challenged by neighbors during a public hearing Thursday night.


Residents of Long Ridge Road near the Redding border are concerned the church will overwhelm the rural character of their wooded neighborhood, despite assurances by the church leader that services will be small.

"They said they don't want to grow," said Barbara Fulton, who has lived in the neighborhood for 47 years. "But I have been involved with lots of churches, and there is no church that I know of that doesn't want to grow."

Although neighbors said their argument is not with the church, it doesn't help that little is known about the group.

The pastor of the church, the Rev. Gerardo Zendejas, *****************is a missionary from MEXICO *********who was affiliated up until six months ago with a conservative group known as the Society of St. Pius X that broke with official Roman Catholic doctrine and is now not recognized as part of the church.

But Zendejas has since left that group, known as SSPX, and has formed a church called BRN Associates. Although he and several church members have met with neighborhood opponents, the meetings have not eased their concerns.

"It seems like the more questions we ask, the less satisfaction we get," said Duane Perkins, a city councilman who represents the neighborhood.

"Long Ridge Road is the only designated scenic road in the entire city, and if this thing gets out of hand, we could lose that designation," Perkins said. "We are being told this whole operation is going to be small, and they want us to take their word for it."

There's no need to take their word for it, the lawyer representing the sellers responded on Wednesday. The church has agreed to limit services to twice on Sunday with no more than 35 cars at each service, among other restrictions, as part of any agreement to approve the deal.

"It's unfortunate that people are saying we're going to have 500 cars," said Thomas Beecher, the attorney representing the Institute of Children's Literature, which has owned the property for 40 years. "The fear was this is going to be a mega church, and that is just not the case."

The Institute and BRN are seeking approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals to waive two requirements for a church in the single-family neighborhood zone *********************. One requirement is that a church must be connected to city water and city sewers instead of the wells and septic system on the property********************. The other requirement is the church must be on a road that is designed for more volume than Long Ridge Road.

The ZBA will hear arguments from both sides at City Hall at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Bryan Judge, the chairman of the Institute, said the church would use less water, produce less waste and draw less traffic than the business he has run there since 1975. During his business' heyday, the Institute had 70 employees driving to work each weekday.

READ FULL ARTICLE

Read and comprehend before you thumb down.

A rogue priest who broke with the "doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church" who isn't recognized "inside or outside" of the Catholic Church, is starting his own church (like Martin Luther) called BRN associates (what a catchy name for a church!).


BRN associates is probably the cover that they use to buy real estate when otherwise nobody wiould sell to them. I am tole that the Trappists did something similar when they went into Georgia.