Baby Jesus is coming strapped this Christmas—with GPS! Many churches and synagogues in the area are equipping their nativity scenes and menorah displays with the locating system to impede hooligans who often use the holiday season to get their jollies via vandalism, costing the places of worship up to thousands of dollars for the sometimes pricey decorations. New York-based firm BrickHouse Secruity offered free, short term loans of GPS to religious institutions that now will......

The police say 27-year-old Joseph Pallipurath fatally shot his estranged wife and another person and injured a third inside a church in Clifton, NJ. The Star-Ledger reports that Pallipurath's wife Reshma James had fled her husband and their California home "to live with a relative in New Jersey... and even took out a restraining order against" him. But he tracked her down at the Thomas Syrian Orthodox Church; witnesses say Pallipurath said, "You are my......

As reported last week, a woman is suing the Diocese of Brooklyn for $25 million because a Roman Catholic priest at Our Lady of the Snows church allegedly seduced her from the confession booth. The accused priest, Reverend Elvis Elano, has yet to speak publicly, but yesterday parishioners at his former church in Astoria opened up to the Post. And one 80-year-old female churchgoer can probably count on being summoned to testify in Elano's defense:......

Reverend Elvis Elano, a priest formerly posted at Our Lady of the Snows in the Queens, is having a very trying day. After his secret seven-month affair with parishioner Judith Rodrigues-Lytwyn ended earlier this month, his ex has gone public with a lawsuit in Brooklyn Supreme Court, and The Smoking Gun has obtained a cachet of embarrassing photos, emails and documents, like the receipt for his online Viagra purchase. Rodrigues-Lytwyn, age 50, says in a......

Police say a drug-addicted ex-con admitted to robbing 12 churches on Staten Island. And Lonnie Faulk would attend "Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, then [come] back to raid poor boxes and candle collection plates," according to the Staten Island Advance. Apparently Faulk was arrested while attempting a 13th break-in, "using a screwdriver to break a basement window at the First Central Baptist Church." The church deacon, who said they had been previously robbed of rolls of quarters......

Is gambling really a vice if you donate your $3 million lottery ticket to a church in need? The growing True North Community Church, which Newsday says was about to hold services in "rented ballrooms and school gyms," received a blessing when an anonymous donor gave them a winning Ba-Da Bling scratch-off ticket's winnings. The Port Jefferson Station church will received $150,000 a year for 20 years. Taxes will be taken out, but since the......

The Daily News has a cute story about a Flatbush church ordering a 240-pound fan to cool the congregation. Apparently it gets so stifling at Our Lady of Refuge Church during the summer that some parishioners stop going to church, therefore the church called upon Big Ass Fans of Kentucky to bring in a $7,500 fan. While the name is a bit secular, but the church administrator said in the current conditions, "You can't even......

The Brooklyn Flea was back in business for another Sunday, and The Daily News reports from the front lines, noting that the clash between "hipsters and old-timers" continued. While the Flea isn't really a hipster thing, the clash between the two sides did continue, even though the two attempted to reconcile at a meeting this past Thursday.Angry encounters over parking between shoppers and local churchgoers nearly ended in blows yesterday. "Our church is fighting to......

Last night the community board meeting concerning The Brooklyn Flea was held, and The Brooklyn Paper reports back that opponents and organizers alike "met in a heated, ethnically charged summit that ended without any solutions to the chasm that separates the sides." Essentially, local churches want the Flea gone, or at least no longer coinciding with services on Sunday (but really they just want it gone); many believe that the long-time residents are leaving no......

Photograph by wallyg on Flickr It's a $20 million miracle for an East Village church slated for demolition! An anonymous donor has given a multi-million donation to the struggling parish and its school: There's $10 million for the restoration of the the church, $2 million for a parish endowment and $8 million to support St. Brigid's school and other Catholic schools. With a cornerstone laid in 1848, St. Brigid's is one of the oldest......

Somehow, a parishioner at the Free Mission Action Movement Church in East New York, Brooklyn managed to steal the church and sell it to a developer. How could this happen? Well, the City Register doesn't check deeds for authenticity, enabling many scammers to attempt steal property. The Daily News reports that the "con-man parishioner" Derrick Jones "easily managed to get the City Register to record forged deeds" for the $1 million church and property. Jones......

Working his political connections to score one of the few below-ground burial plots left in Manhattan, former Mayor Ed Koch has announced that he will be buried in Trinity Church Cemetery at Broadway and 155th Street. The 83-year-old New Yorker says, “The idea of leaving Manhattan permanently irritates me.” So when the time comes he’ll be laid to rest in the company of such notables as Jerry Orbach, naturalist John James Audubon, and a slew......

“Anonymous”, the loose-knit anti-Scientology collective, staged a demonstration yesterday outside New York’s Church of Scientology Headquarters near Times Square; it was part of an international day of protest against the church. Anonymous has been expanding rapidly since their Message to Scientology video was posted on YouTube in January; it's been watched over 2 million times in the past three weeks. Among other things, the video accuses Scientology of censorship for threatening to sue websites who......

Peter Braunstein really loves the New York Post. The fashion industry reporter-turned-prison inmate, after being recently convicted of the kidnapping, sex assault, armed robbery and burglary of a former co-worker on Halloween in 2005, gives his first interview since being locked up this past summer to the tabloid. He gives a number of choice quotes to the Post, who calls him "still-crazy." And how! Not only does he regret not killing his ex-girlfriend Jane......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on Austin Rd. in Queens, another bank robbery on Church Ave. in Brooklyn, and a police car vs. scaffolding in Manhattan; the scaffolding has been compromised. A Queens high school was locked down this afternoon for two hours after a student's 'To Do' list was found listing seven students "To kill today." The projected cost of restoring the separate homes that constitute Admiral's Row at the......

Writer/director Robert Tinnell has sifted through his fond childhood memories of big Italian Christmas gatherings and emerged with a unique fusion of comic book and cookbook called The Feast of the Seven Fishes. Originally a popular internet comic, the humorously fictional book is inspired by the Italian Christmas Eve tradition involving big seafood dinners and lots of red wine. (The book's boisterous familial storyline will also be adapted into a feature length film of the......

A week and a half ago, former NJ Governor James McGreevey and his ex-wife Dina Matos McGreevey were fighting over a birthday party McGreevey and his partner were planning for 6-year-old daughter Jacqueline, another public spat in their contentious divorce. In spite of a judge's repeated requests for the McGreeveys to settle their differences for the sake of their daughter, we know a lot about their squabbling. The Post runs down the greatest hits. Matos......

Fire Marshal Douglas Mercereau was laid to rest at St. Charles R.C. Church on Staten Island yesterday. Mercereau was found murdered in his home, shot three times in the head, and his wife appears to be a suspect. Though the police have not officially named any suspects, Janet Redmond-Mercereau allegedly had a rocky relationship with her husband, to the point where the two started divorce proceedings in 2006. At the funeral, mourners "cast suspicious glances"......

After commuters on the L and B/D (as well as N/Q/R/W) lines had to deal with breakdowns and commuting delays last night, this evening's commute brings delays on the F, D, G and N lines. Apparently a signal problem at 4th Avenue-9th Street Station in Brooklyn is causing the F to be shut between West 4th Street-Washington Square Station and the Church Avenue Station in both directions. The F then runs on the D......

After two seasons of constant trade speculation, the Mets finally have moved Lastings Milledge in a deal this afternoon to the division rival Washington Nationals. In return, the Mets receive Outfielder Ryan Church and Catcher Brian Schneider. Milledge was not always a model citizen as a Met, either on the field or of the field, but nonetheless had been long touted by the organization and the media by a top tier outfield prospect. While he......

CRAFTY: The holiday season is upon us, which means getting that perfect gift for whoever's egg nog you'll be gathered around this year. Why not try a little D.I.Y.? Every other Monday the Church of Craft meets up and will "provide contact, craft support, advice, knowhowto, instructions, directions, tips, tricks, inspiration, and the blinding love of craft to all who seek it." 7 to 9pm // Rapture Cafe [200 Avenue A] // Free EVENT: Have......

Riders hope that low grades for the G line will eventually lead to improvements, while plans are in place to make the G a more usable line. Despite being the two largest boroughs in New York City, there is only one train line dedicated to getting people from Brooklyn (2.5 million people) to Queens (2.3 million people). All other passages must make their way from one borough, through Manhattan (1.6 million people), and then on......

On November 25, 2006, groom-to-be Sean Bell and his friends were leaving the Kalua nightclub in Queens when undercover police confronted them. In the confusion that ensued (the police thinking the men were armed or were going to the car to retrieve a gun, uncertainty over whether the police identified themselves leading Bell and his friends to think they were being carjacked) five undercover cops fired 50 times at Bell's car. His friends Joseph......

Earlier this week, a National Labor Committee report claimed that crosses sold at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Trinity Church and other churches were made in Chinese sweatshops. The NLC said that the Singer Company employed young women at 26 cents an hour and forced them to work a 100 hours a week; plus, the woman are docked pay for food and boarding, leaving them with pay of just 9 cents an hour. You can read......

MUSIC: If you aren't at your local hometown bar this Thanksgiving-eve, drinking with old high school buddies -- we suggest a sonic alternative. Tonight The Hold Steady and Art Brut do their best at making Terminal 5 feel a little bit cozier this holiday season. Buy tickets here. 7:30pm // Terminal 5 [610 W 56th St] // $30 MUSIC MOVIES: If you're sick and tired of the bands playing around town, go check out two......

EVENT: Tonight Duncan Sheik (ah, we still remember when he sang "Barely Breathing" at the Peach Pit After Dark) and Steven Sater pair up for a Spring Awakening book signing. They will be joined from 5–5:30pm by Spring Awakening cast members Jennifer Damiano and John Gallagher, Jr., who will perform acoustic versions of two song selections from the show at the signing. 5 to 7pm // Drama Book Shop [250 W 40th St] // Free......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A police impersonation on Ocean Parkway and Quentin in Brooklyn, a car vs. Pathmark at 107th Avenue at 105th Street in Queens, and an evidence search at 13 East 12th Street. The new report cards for public schools may mean principals will be fired and schools closed. A stop work order didn't stop a construction crew from tearing up the building where Gertel's once stood on Hester Street. Giuliani......

On the Gothamist Newsmap: A large fight/stabbing at Church and Remsen in Brooklyn, a stabbing on 5th Ave. in Manhattan, and a home invasion robbery on Cruger Ave. in the Bronx. An early morning fire damaged four businesses in Inwood; the FDNY is investigating, but the fire may have started in a business that's been closed for months. Senator Schumer releases a statement about his support for Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey (the senior......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an officer assaulted on Church Ave. and 53rd St. in Brooklyn, a car into a coffee shop in the area of Skillman and 50th in Queens, and two people shot on Park Ave. and 17th St. in Manhattan. An insurance broker pleaded guilty to idiotic target practice that launched arrows from his compound bow on the Upper East Side. Bono and Bloomberg's mutual admiration society. Brooklyn state Assemblyman Dov......

For those not wanting to hit the big Halloween parade (led by today's interviewee) there are other options: Park Slope's Halloween Parade (info here), Clinton Hill's Halloween Walk (info here) Prospect Park South's Halloween Parade (info here) and Williamsburg's Witches Walk (info here). EVENT: Hallowe'en is Happening Downtown at Trinty Church where both both kids and adults will find spooky spectacles tonight. For the little ones there will be an early evening filled with games,......