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Maryland Church Told to Immediately Stop Worship

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  • Maryland Church Told to Immediately Stop Worship

    OK, so that's the headline of the email I got from our Church's legal beagles.

    Always believing there are two sides to every story, I decided to let you guys tear into this to find the truth.

    Supposedly, AFTER the Church (coffee house) was established, zoning laws 'conveniently changed', and the Church was ordered to cease and desist all worship meetings.

    From the Baltimore Sun, some background on the Church, while I do some more checking...

    Spiritual brews at new Main Street coffee house


    Main Street gained another coffee shop in April, and this time there's more brewing inside the renovated storefront than just fragrant coffee beans.

    "We're trying to represent the tremendous love of God," said the Rev. Jeremy Tuinstra, whose church, Redemption Community Church, owns Ragamuffins Coffee House at 385 Main St.

    Tuinstra said the new business's name was inspired by Brennan Manning's book, "The Ragamuffin Gospel," which describes the "beaten, bedraggled and burnt out" members of God's flock as spiritual ragamuffins and recipients of His love and grace.

    At Ragamuffins on Main Street, Tuinstra said, everyone is welcome.

    "Community is our first product; after that we bring [handcrafted] coffee," he said.

    Redemption Community Church, formerly Covenant Presbyterian Church, purchased the property in 2015 from Firoozhe Zafari.
    The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

  • #2
    This seems to be a comprehensive description of the current situation:
    In March 2015, Laurel's Planning Commission voted to grant Redemption Community a parking waiver to allow for its creation of a non-profit coffee shop and worship space.

    The Ragamuffins Coffee House was located in the "Commercial Village Zone" of Laurel and needed a waiver in response to a code regulation on number of spaces.

    Commissioner Mitzi Betman, chair of the Commission, explained at the April 2015 meeting that she was reconsidering the vote from the month before due to new details that emerged.

    "When I voted for this in the affirmative, I believed that we were getting a coffee shop on Main Street that for two hours on Sunday was almost going to be a sublet in a sense for a church," explained Betman at the April 2015 meeting. "So there was a lot of additional information brought up."

    This included the application not mentioning that the profits from the coffee house were going to charity and the Planning Commission not being aware of the city's new zoning regulation limited nonprofit access to the Commercial Village Zone.

    In July 2015, the City granted the church a Use and Occupancy permit, which allowed them to operate the coffee shop provided that they did not hold any assemblies.

    Last April, the coffee shop was officially opened, with the church holding worship on Sundays when the business was closed, according to the lawsuit.
    https://www.christianpost.com/news/r...ryland-217620/

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