Ron Newman ([personal profile] ron_newman) wrote in [community profile] davis_square2012-05-30 05:40 pm
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Urban Promise Church is NOT closing

even though it looks that way right now. All of the Urban Promise signage is gone, and the only remaining sign just says "SPACE FOR RENT 617-999-5133".

I called the number and talked to the minister, who told me that a non-profit in New Jersey (ETA: I'm guessing this one) had registered the name 'Urban Promise' and sent the church a cease-and-desist letter, forcing them to change their name. They'll probably go back to 'West Somerville Church of the Nazarene' or something similar.

So, not to worry, Theatre@First and PMRP are not about to lose their practice and performance space. But they will need to change the church name used in their publicity soon.

(For those who don't know what I'm talking about -- this is the church at the southeast corner of Elm and Russell streets.)
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[identity profile] koloratur.livejournal.com 2012-05-31 01:51 am (UTC)(link)
From their Guidestar report, Urban Promise Ministries in NJ has been a registered 501c3 since 2003. It's not like they're domain name squatters or something.

[personal profile] ron_newman 2012-05-31 01:54 am (UTC)(link)
And they sound like good people doing socially useful work, too. So I'm surprised they would send a legal threat to another church by the same name hundreds of miles away.

Imagine if there could only be one "First Church" or one "St. Benedict's" or one "Congregation B'nai Brith" in the entire US.
Edited 2012-05-31 01:56 (UTC)

[identity profile] koloratur.livejournal.com 2012-05-31 01:57 am (UTC)(link)
It's not like they asked them to close - they asked them to stop using their registered name. That's not exactly unreasonable, in my opinion, especially for an organization that is religious and presumably relies in some way on donations.

[personal profile] ron_newman 2012-05-31 03:10 am (UTC)(link)
Understood, but see my comment's second paragraph (which I think I added while you were replying). Just locally in metro Boston, there are separate and unrelated "Beth El" synagogues in Quincy, Belmont, and Sudbury, not to mention hundreds of others elsewhere in the US. Ditto for St. James (there's one in Cambridge and another in Somerville, both Episcopal, but another in Chinatown that's Catholic).
Edited 2012-05-31 04:45 (UTC)
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[personal profile] gingicat 2012-05-31 01:51 pm (UTC)(link)
That may be simply because of differences in denomination, though. Every synagogue is a Beth El (house of God), really. :)

Protestant churches of all denominations tend to have overlapping sets of names; Catholic churches tend to have a particular set of names.

I'd assumed that Urban Promise, like Grace Church, was a set of churches within a particular denomination.

[personal profile] ron_newman 2012-05-31 02:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Somerville used to have a Grace Baptist Church, while Medford has a Grace Episcopal Church. (The Somerville church building is still there on Cross Street and used by other congregations, but the Grace Baptist congregation is defunct.)
Edited 2012-05-31 14:21 (UTC)

[identity profile] spacehawk.livejournal.com 2012-07-24 07:03 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah... this is very confusing! What is the problem with two churches sharing the same name?
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