Hundreds of sunbathers gathered at a New Jersey beach for the first time in 155 years on Sunday morning after state officials ordered the Christian denomination that owns the beach to stop closing it off for prayer.
Beach-hungry crowds took advantage of the holiday weekend miracle after the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, a Methodist group that began closing beaches on Sunday mornings for worship in 1869, reluctantly agreed to open its sunny shores to the public, at least for now.
“We were walking around [at] 8 or 9 [a.m.]”We were just going to the bathroom,” said Daniel San Giuliano, 21, a college student who was among the first to hit the beach with friends Sunday, never realizing they’d made history.
“An elderly couple who were sitting on a bench feeding the birds said this was the first time in 155 years that the beach has been open before noon,” San Giuliano said.
Kevin Juarez, who arrived at Ocean Grove Beach that morning, said getting onto the sand was easy compared to previous Sunday trips to the coast.
“It’s nice to be able to come early,” Juarez told The Post. “Last year there were a lot of people waiting in line!”
The beach is finally open to the public during previously prohibited hours, thanks to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection ordering Christian landowners to open the beach.
The ban was part of the “core” of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, which centers on the enormous Great Auditorium on its waterfront property, where pilgrims come from far and wide to pray.
Representatives for the Methodist denomination did not respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment Sunday, but issued a statement about the unrest last week.
“Since the founding of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, we have closed our beaches on Sunday mornings for 155 years out of respect for God, a central pillar of this community,” the statement said.
“The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is currently ordering private beaches to be open on Sunday mornings. We are challenging this order to protect property rights and religious freedom,” the statement said.
“We are currently forced to comply with the orders of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection … but we have not ceased or abandoned our quest to protect our religious and property rights.”
The organization, which will staff lifeguards during the new hours, calls the beach just north of Asbury Park “God’s mile square on the Jersey Shore.”
The rule that keeps people off the beach during Sunday morning prayers went largely unchallenged for decades, until the surrounding area developed and more locals sought out the sun and sand.
The problem came to light when more and more people started ignoring the rules and sneaking onto the beach early.
In court papers, the association argued that the beach is open to the public “99.5%” of the time, which is “fully reasonable.”
However, the DEP ruled differently, ordering “cessation of the use of chains, padlocks or other barriers that restrict reasonable public access to the beachfront.”
In a ruling Tuesday, DEP Chairman Sean LaTourette denied the association’s request to vacate the order, rejecting the association’s argument that it did the right thing most of the time.
“meanwhile [Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association’s] “Even if an intent to comply with the public access law is found for most of the calendar year, the association’s compliance with the law most of the time does not justify unlawful conduct at other times,” LaTourette wrote.
The DEP order states that the association could be fined $25,000 for each day it violates the rules.
Not all local residents agree with state officials’ approach and see no harm in a Sunday morning closure.
“The quiet Sunday morning gave us time to catch our breath. It felt like a respite,” said Jackie Smith, a Staten Island native and retiree who owns a home in Ocean Grove. “It was just lovely, so special.”
She said seeing the crowds early Sunday morning was “disturbing.”
I was like, “What day is it today?”
But Elise Rivera, 66, a friend of Smith’s from Hoboken, New Jersey, said, “I supported the tradition for years, until they started actively putting chains and padlocks on it.”
“At that point, I no longer supported the church,” she said.
“At first it was just a rope, small and polite,” she said of the church’s blocking of traffic.
And after last year’s protests, “they fought back with chains.”
Still, resident Kathleen Pisano said, “No one buys a home in Ocean Grove without knowing the rules.”
“When we bought our houses, we had to understand what the blue laws were and sign agreements that said we couldn’t leave our cars outside and things like that,” said Pisani, 71, referring to local ordinances that once prohibited people from even driving or riding their bikes on Sundays. “So most people knew what was expected of them.”
