By a huge margin, the New York City Council passed a resolution encouraging the New York state legislature to vote to allow faith-based institutions to rent space in NYC public schools. The vote in council was 38-11.
Speaking for the “right to worship” movement is pastor William Devlin, who co-chairs the entire effort with Councilman Fernando Cabrera. Devlin states, “This is an incredible victory for the freedom to worship here in NYC. We are grateful to city council and we say thank you. We are also grateful to God. We love our city, we love our mayor and chancellor, and we love those who have opposed us. We now will look to Albany for the next step. Again, we say thank you to city council for allowing all faiths—Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Sikh—to rent space in public schools.”
Legislation on freedom to worship was passed widely in the New York Senate last year but held up in the New York Senate Assembly by Speaker Sheldon Silver. Litigation is also pending in the U.S. federal court for the Second Circuit, Bronx Household of Faith v. NYC Department of Education.
