'Created a negative image': Church community upset after photos posted to Facebook claim it's abandoned

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — A Facebook post from an anonymous page upsetting an entire church community.

The page "Abandoned and Beyond Buffalo, NY" showcases abandoned buildings throughout Western New York.

Wednesday the page posted photos taken inside the Durham Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church.

The problem: this church is not abandoned.

7 News' Pheben Kassahun spoke with the reverend of the worship who said he wanted an apology.

The church sits on the corner of Eagle and Michigan.

It was constructed in 1920 and is the oldest surviving church associated with the Buffalo African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) congregations.

However, over time, this beautiful brick foundation has begun to deteriorate. The COVID-19 pandemic did not help.

Members had to stop worshiping in the church around March 2022 because of this.

However, in September of that same year, Reverend Michael Bell was called upon to return to Buffalo and breathe life back into the historic place of worship.

Reverend Michael Bell said, "As the Bishop explained, they needed some of my skills, which involved rebuilding and building and to make sure that this historic church had an opportunity to live again, physically."

In the meantime, members have relocated to the building next door for worship in the Durham Memorial Outreach Center of the A.M.E. Center.

"Because of what happened with 5/14, it was significant for me because of my experience, particularly on the social justice side of things to work on healing members impacted and a community impacted, as well as dealing with some of the fragmentation coming from still a post-colonial community of Buffalo, NY," Rev. Bell explained.

The church also happens to be the same church that Ruth Whitfield, who was killed in the Buffalo mass shooting, attended. The roof was donated and replaced in her honor.

Now, the church is dealing with another bump in the road.

According to Rev. Bell, at least one person was seen leaving the church at a time when it was locked. They took pictures and posted them on the Facebook page "Abandoned and Beyond Buffalo, NY", on Wednesday.

"One of the leaders of the program pulled me aside roughly around 6 o'clock and said there was an individual coming out of the church and I said no. I said, the door was locked, how could they have gotten in there," Rev. Bell said.

He said the people who took the photos were in violation by breaking into the church which was locked at the time and that the assumption that the church is abandoned is not true.

It was not open to the public and has been in transition.

"It gave a description but it did not identify all or suggest that we had even given her permission to give an artistic explanation, assuming that it had been abandoned," he said. "They took something and created a negative image. Something that wasn't, and now we've been slandered. Whether that's intentional or not it doesn't matter because they violated the first principle. This is our property. You didn't do your due diligence."

Comments under the Facebook post corrected the original post, explaining how it was not abandoned.

The task is still large for Rev. Bell, as he makes changes that he says would cost at least $300,000. He says financial challenges and damage to the building during the blizzard have added more obstacles.

"At the end of the day, I am awfully offended and feel very unsafe by what happened," he explained. "I want an apology or we're going to wind up taking this to court."

In the meantime, Rev. Bell said he is working on a way to get funding for the church.

Just before 7 a.m. on Friday "Abandoned and Beyond Buffalo, NY" posted a statement and apology on its Facebook page and said it had deleted the photos.