By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Moses parted the sea. Jesus walked on water. What will Harlem parishioners do to get to church on Sunday?
Many of the neighborhood's churchgoers will be separated from their places of worship by the flood of 45,000 runners, streaming down Fifth Avenue for Sunday's ING New York City Marathon.
The inconvenience is nothing new – this year will mark the event's 40th anniversary – but several Harlem reverends and congregants took the opportunity to speak out about the issue in Friday's New York Times.
“It just ruins everything,” Nicola Licorish, 60, who attends Mount Olivet Church on West 120th Street and Lenox Avenue, just one block from the marathon route, complained to the paper. “I realize it’s a great community event that is good for Manhattan and good for the economy, but it certainly is not good for us.”
Mount Olivet parishioners who live east of Fifth Avenue will be forced to take the subway down to 96th Street and then back up on the West Side in order to get to the church. But even after they get there, attendees will be forced to navigate massive crowds – a challenge that has proven too much for some older congregants, according to the Times.
“Me being handicapped, I just can’t do it. It’s too much for me," 87-year-old Katherine Johnson told the paper. "I don’t even try anymore.”
The reverend at Mount Olivet, Rev. Charles Curtis, echoed their frustration, pointing out that it's not just the New York City Marathon causing problems.
“If it’s not the marathon, it’s a walkathon, if not a walkathon then it’s a bikeathon,” Curtis said. “And they are always held on our holy day.”
