(Editor’s Note: WNYC News reports that several churches affiliated with the Redeemer Presbyterian Church rely on the public schools, including Park Slope Presbyterian Church, which uses John Jay High in Brooklyn, and Covenant of Grace Presbyterian Church, which uses IS 5 in Queens. )(Editor’s Note: WNYC News reports that several churches affiliated with the Redeemer Presbyterian Church rely on the public schools, including Park Slope Presbyterian Church, which uses John Jay High in Brooklyn, and Covenant of Grace Presbyterian Church, which uses IS 5 in Queens. )

The city Law Department has maintained that worship in schools violates the Establishment Clause, which says the federal government cannot establish religion.

The U.S. Supreme Court will announce Monday if it will hear a case to determine whether churches can hold worship services in city public schools.

Bronx Household of Faith v. Board of Education of the City of New York has churned through the court system for about 16 years. In the latest ruling in June, an appeals court decided that the 60 city churches cannot use public school space – even though congregations worship when school is not in session.

“If the Court grants review, it is likely that we will win and the city’s policy will be invalidated,” said Jordan Lorence, a lawyer for Bronx Household of Faith, an evangelical church in University Heights. “It’s a good vehicle to decide the big question that’s raised in our case: whether religious worship by private groups is fully protected under the First Amendment.”

Many churches use school auditoriums and gymnasiums because the rent is affordable, and they have no space elsewhere.

Some are forced to because of hardships.

For example, a four-alarm fire ripped through Love Gospel Assembly on the Grand Concourse about a year ago, rendering it unuseable, so congregants gathered at MS 399.

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