(Photo courtesy of the Office of New York City Councilmember Fernando Cabrera)

(CNSNews.com) - The New York City Council’s education committee will hold a hearing Thursday morning on a resolution that urges New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature to pass legislation to allow churches to rent worship spaces from New York public schools on the same terms as other community groups.

Currently, New York City public schools are set to evict 60 churches on February 12 from meeting in city schools, after the Supreme Court refused to intervene in a federal appeals court ruling allowing them to do so.

Resolution 1155, sponsored by New York City Councilmember Fernando Cabrera, urges passage of State Assembly Bill A8800 and State Senate Bill 6087A, that would grant maximum access to houses of worship wishing to rent empty spaces in public schools during non-school hours.

“I thank Education Committee Chair Robert Jackson and Council Speaker Christine Quinn for scheduling a hearing on this important resolution,” Cabrera said Wednesday.

“Affected and empathetic individuals will have an opportunity to voice their opinions. The fight continues.”

More than half of the 51 city council members have already signed on to the resolution, Cabrera said, but it will be up to the speaker of the city council to determine whether it comes up for a vote before the full council.

“But if it’s allowed it will definitely pass,” Cabrera said.

Currently both the New York State Assembly and New York State Senate are considering bills that would lift the ban on churches.

Last Friday, the Senate Education Committee approved the amendment, 17-1, to amend state education laws to allow churches to meet at schools outside of school hours. Six members voted for the measure "with reservation."

The state assembly is moving slower and that worries Cabrera.

“This is urgent, we’re running out of time,” he said. “Feb. 12th is the deadline and these houses of worship are about to be evicted.”

(Photo courtesy of the Office of New York City Councilmember Fernando Cabrera)

On Sunday, Cabrera led an estimated 3,500 clergy and laymen in a march across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan Sunday to show their support for the resolution allowing churches and other houses of worship to continue meeting in public school buildings on weekends.

The councilman, a pastor himself, said he was pleasantly surprised by the number of people that showed up for the march.

“It was a very diverse march. We had Latinos, Caucasians, African American, a large constituency of Koreans came, Chinese as well,” Cabrera told CNSNews.com.

According to Cabrera, both the New York City Public Advocate and the New York City Comptroller attended the march, along with several assembly members, state senators, and pastors.

A Democrat, Cabrera said he thinks that Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will sign the bill into law if it passes both houses.

“I don’t think the governor wants to be labeled as an anti-religious governor and if he has any aspirations for nation wide run, that’s the last thing he wants upon him,” Cabrera said.

However, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), the New York branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, is asking its members to urge the governor to oppose the assembly bill.

On its Web site, the NYCLU says letting churches and other houses of worship meet during the weekend in public school buildings violates the separation of church and state.

The NYCLU did not return telephone calls from CNSNews.com for comment.

For the past 10 years as the result of a court order, houses of worship, mostly start-up churches have been allowed to meet in public school buildings on the weekend provided they pay a custodial fee.

In December that changed when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal after the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals withdrew the court order.

When the order was removed, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Department of Education decided to ban churches but not other organizations from using public school facilities on the weekend.