INC buys another US town

MANILA, Philippines -  The expansion of the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) continues in the United States with the acquisition of a second town: the long-abandoned Johnsonville in Connecticut, reportedly for $1.85 million.

Glicerio Santos Jr., general auditor of the INC, announced over the weekend that their church acquired Johnsonville as part of its aggressive expansion in the US.

Reports said the seller of Johnsonville was the Meyer Jabara Hotels, which bought the property for $2.5 million in 2001. Reports also said the sale of the property was quick; emissaries first visited Johnsonville only in late June.

The INC earlier acquired Scenic Town in South Dakota.

Santos said the INC, after establishing numerous chapels in many states across the US, is “breathing new life into old, abandoned US towns.”
Santos also bared that the INC would be working to “restore, rehabilitate, and reinvigorate the town of Johnsonville, Connecticut” after acquiring the almost 200 year-old town, which was abandoned for 20 years.

“We already have three congregations in Connecticut and we believe that restoring Johnsonville to its former glory is just part and parcel of our responsibility as positive contributors in the state,” he added.
Johnsonville is a 62-acre property with a church, meeting house, general store, pond and covered bridge.

Santos described the town as “picture perfect,” but the INC would be doing its best to restore Johnsonville to the way it looked when it was established in the mid-1800s.
“Johnsonville looks like it was frozen in time. It’s a beautiful, picturesque property, so all our efforts will be focused on restoration. We will also establish our first eco-farming here in the US to create jobs and livelihood in this town,” he added.
Just over a century after the INC was founded in 1914, the homegrown church has gone global under the leadership of executive minister Eduardo Manalo.

Since he took over the reins of the INC in September 2009, 79 new chapels have been dedicated abroad, in countries like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and the US.

In the US alone, 45 new chapels have been dedicated during the current church leadership.
Santos said that the INC leadership aims to uplift communities all around the world, “spiritually and physically, in form and in substance.”
“This is all part of the INC’s mission, part of our evangelization efforts. We want to reach out and touch lives. This is evangelization through expansion, fulfilling our mission through a larger and better Church, serving the communities around us whether they are our members or not,” he added.