By: Wayne Parry, The Related Press
Posted: 9:56 AM CDT Tuesday, Might. 21, 2024
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OCEAN GROVE, N.J. (AP) — A Christian spiritual group that has closed its seashores on Sunday mornings for generations to honor God is relenting briefly, permitting beachgoers onto the sand whereas it fights a courtroom case with New Jersey over whose guidelines are paramount.
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OCEAN GROVE, N.J. (AP) — A Christian spiritual group that has closed its seashores on Sunday mornings for generations to honor God is relenting briefly, permitting beachgoers onto the sand whereas it fights a courtroom case with New Jersey over whose guidelines are paramount.
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OCEAN GROVE, N.J. (AP) — A Christian spiritual group that has closed its seashores on Sunday mornings for generations to honor God is relenting briefly, permitting beachgoers onto the sand whereas it fights a courtroom case with New Jersey over whose guidelines are paramount.
The Ocean Grove Camp Assembly Affiliation, a Methodist group that established a Christian seaside retreat on the Jersey Shore in 1869, says it’ll permit folks onto the seaside on Sunday mornings whereas the case performs out.
The affiliation has requested for an emergency ruling halting motion by the Division of Environmental Safety to implement seaside entry legal guidelines that New Jersey says Ocean Grove is violating. The company threatened fines of $25,000 per day.
Folks sit on the seaside on a weekday afternoon in Ocean Grove, N.J. on Might 2, 2024 as a Christian flag and an American flag flutter within the breeze. The state of New Jersey says the Ocean Grove Camp Assembly Affiliation is violating state seaside entry legal guidelines by maintaining folks off the seaside till midday on Sundays. (AP Photograph/Wayne Parry)
“For 155 years, now we have closed our seaside on Sunday mornings to honor God — a core pillar of this neighborhood because the founding of the Ocean Grove Camp Assembly Affiliation,” the group’s assertion says. “We’re difficult this order to protect our property rights and non secular freedom.”
Ocean Grove is a part of Neptune Township, simply north of Asbury Park and about 60 miles south of New York Metropolis.
The affiliation owns all of the land locally that calls itself “God’s Sq. Mile on the Jersey Shore,” together with the seashores, which it has stored closed till midday on Sundays whereas it held worship companies.
Some folks defied the principles final 12 months, venturing onto the seaside on Sunday mornings. They mentioned affiliation personnel known as the police, however officers didn’t intervene as soon as they arrived.
In courtroom papers, the affiliation mentioned that “all members of the general public are welcome (onto the seaside) 12 months a 12 months. Anybody, no matter race, creed, faith or orientation is welcome onto this non-public property 99.5% of the 12 months.”
“Public entry is restricted for 45 hours out of the 12 months between Memorial Day and Labor Day, a coverage the affiliation known as “abundantly cheap.”
There is no such thing as a indication when the executive legislation decide would possibly challenge a choice.
The DEP and the state legal professional common’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark Tuesday.
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Comply with Wayne Parry on X at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC
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…. to be continued
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