Biden administration retreats, allows Knights of Columbus to hold Memorial Day MassChristian group temporarily opens beaches it has closed on Sunday mornings as court fight plays out
The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, a Methodist group that established a Christian seaside retreat at the Jersey Shore in 1869, said it had closed its beaches on Sunday mornings during religious services in Ocean Grove for more than a century and a half before the state Department of Environmental Protection accused the group of violating state beach access laws.
The association is a nonprofit Christian entity that owns the beach and the land under all of Ocean Grove’s houses under a charter given to it by the state in 1870. In court papers, it says what the state is trying to do violates U.S. constitutional amendments concerning freedom of religion, the taking of private property, and due process and equal protection.
E. VanderBerg, an Ocean Grove resident who had just attended a worship service at the association, said Sunday she was happy to see families out on the sand and to know that “people have a choice.”