"Members Come to New York--To Stay"

Members come to N.Y. — to stay
(by Carrie A. Moore, Deseret News; published: Saturday, June 12, 2004)

NEW YORK — Latter-day Saints in America's largest city say they have come out of obscurity in the eyes of their faith, creating a burgeoning destination that welcomes growing numbers of newcomers rather than being a place for "just passing through," according to local leaders and members.

"It used to be when (Latter-day Saints) would move here from the West they were always pursuing something else short-term, whether it was grad school or a career start in performing arts, medicine or Wall Street," said Brent Belnap, Manhattan stake president for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "They would stay for a season and most would move back West. More of them are staying now."

With the scheduled dedication Sunday of the Manhattan temple, members and observers alike are curious about what is driving the growth that led to the announcement of a temple here.

Belnap, who moved here 18 years ago as a single law student, watched the revolving door of church membership during his first five years. But then the dynamic began to change. Young professional couples would come and stay "until their kids were ready to start school."

Then he saw another shift, where many stayed until their children entered the teen years, and now — despite the hectic lifestyle, heavy taxes, hefty cost of living and often cramped living quarters — "some are making a long-term commitment here. We have seen a real infusion of people who are staying longer."

It's a change of mind-set for many of who are used to suburban life. Fewer than 2 percent of Manhattan church members own their own vehicles, and Belnap estimates even fewer own their apartments or homes. The most recent cost of living survey in New York put the price of an apartment at just more than $1 million, he said. Average rent on the "most livable" two-thirds of Manhattan tops $3,500 per month.

Yet the trend is there, and combined with a growing conversion rate and the church's rising profile on the East Coast, it represents something of what some see as an about-face for the LDS Church, which followed national housing and economic trends that rode a decades-long flight to the suburbs post-World War II.

As one of the fastest-growing faiths in America, the church is returning to inner city venues in a way unprecedented in its history. Manhattan is no exception, according to Claudia Bushman, an adjunct professor of history at Columbia University.

A longtime East Coast resident, Bushman and her husband, Richard, have lauded the "new commitment of the church to urban areas" after living through the flight to the suburbs and watching as the church "sold all its urban city properties. But almost immediately afterward, it began to grow in the city."

Currently, some 132 wards and branches — three of them singles wards — are a part of the 14 stakes or districts, with more than 42,000 members who will use the new temple.

Belnap remembers the rebirth of a congregation in lower Manhattan four years ago, after a 15-year hiatus of activity around Wall Street and the city's financial center. Shortly after 9/11, people again fled the city in droves, but the growth has continued nearly unfettered since.

"If anything, it was just a temporary breather, and things have sailed right on. We've actually gone over the growth numbers to statistically demonstrate what's happened to the church here since, and 9/11 is an indistinguishable event."

For several years, the midtown location that now houses the temple across from Lincoln Center was the only LDS building in Manhattan. At one point last year, it housed eight wards in space built for four.

But a map of the church's presence here today shows buildings in every major sector of the city, many of them marked in red as being "overutilized" and others marked in green as being "under construction." In Manhattan alone, a building housing three church units was dedicated in January near Union Square, the Canal Street branch in Chinatown will move to a new rental building in two weeks, and construction on a new multistory chapel in Harlem is set to begin this month.

In addition, the demolition is being completed on a property the church purchased on East 87th Street between Second and Third Avenues, set to house a multistory meetinghouse that looks from preliminary architectural renderings to be a mixture of historic cathedral and chapel combined.

Belnap credited former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's cleanup campaign aimed at city streets and parks as one reason for the increased interest in urban living. As a city dweller, Bushman said the church "needs a serious downtown presence nearly everywhere." She praised the "great vision shown by our area presidency recently in seeing that we needed this kind of space."

Outlying areas of the city are also experiencing a growth spurt. Ground was broken just last weekend for a new building in New Rochelle, which lies just northeast of Manhattan.

Mark Bench, president of the church's Westchester stake that includes the Bronx, said as new converts continue to come into the church economic and cultural extremes in the area present some challenges. His stakes includes the wealth and prestige of Scarsdale, N.Y., contrasted with one ZIP code area within the Bronx that registers the lowest per-capita income in the country.

Belnap said the complexity of cultures and ethnicities is a rare mix nearly always lacking in LDS regions around the West. "In many respects we're a first-world church, but we're also a Third World church here, with real problems that are very much indicative of life in some parts of Latin America."

Missionaries in New York's five boroughs hail from countries such as Finland, England, Uzbekistan, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Russia, many of them speaking native languages in order to teach the city's widely diverse population of immigrants, students and business people.

The Canal Street branch is situated among the largest concentration of Chinese-speaking people in North America, and has grown from one or two members to more than 50 within the past four years, Belnap said.

Yet with all the demographic surveys and even the temple's construction, he "can't fully explain" the growth of the church in Manhattan. "We live and breathe it every day. It's hard to not just stand it awe, and it's almost happening despite ourselves. It seems we're seeing a formula for astronomical growth."

Meetinghouse caption: "A preliminary drawing shows the LDS multistory meetinghouse planned for East 87th Street in Manhattan. Demolition is under way at the site."