For the First Time in 155 Years, This Beach Will Be Open Sunday

A conservative Christian nonprofit that controls a section of the Jersey Shore will reluctantly open its beach this Sunday morning for the first time in 155 years.

But the organization intends to challenge an order from the state that forced the change.

Ocean Grove, which has a long history of hosting Methodist camp meetings, sits about 60 miles south of Manhattan and describes itself as “God’s Square Mile.” Two wooden crosses stand in the dunes there. A pier in the shape of a cross was unveiled last year. The Christian flag, a red cross on a white banner, flies under an American flag by the beach.

Last summer, dozens of people gathered on the beach on Sunday mornings to protest the religiously motivated restrictions imposed by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, which owns the property. In October, New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection threatened the association with fines of up to $25,000 a day if the beach were not opened.

The association has applied for an emergency order that would allow it to maintain its longstanding rule, which prohibited visitors on the beach on Sunday before noon, during the hours many Christians are traditionally in church. But in the meantime, it said in a statement, the organization will comply with the state order to open the beach and will provide lifeguards on Sunday mornings.

“We are challenging this order to preserve our property rights and religious freedom,” the association said in a statement. It described the Sunday morning beach closure as a way “to honor God — a core pillar of this community.”

A status conference, in which attorneys will meet to discuss the case, has been scheduled for Sept. 4, two days after Labor Day, when peak beach season is over.

Ocean Grove is home to about 3,000 people. No alcohol is sold, and many residents enjoy its old-timey feel. The association has owned most of the land there since 1870, although the town’s municipal power now falls under the larger Neptune Township. It has long avoided paying taxes on its beach, which is less than a mile long, by dedicating it to the public through the state’s Green Acres Program.

Kristin Tito, whose family has been coming to Ocean Grove since the 1930s, said several families are frustrated that newcomers were able to persuade the state to change a rule that has been in place for more than a century. Many Ocean Grove business owners are disappointed, she said, because when the beach was closed on Sunday mornings, people would go downtown and shop.

Ms. Tito said her husband describes Ocean Grove as Greenwich Village crossed with Mayberry, because it attracts a lot of different kinds of people but also moves at a slower pace.

“You risk losing the Mayberry part that makes it slower and unique,” said Ms. Tito, who does not attend church. “You have an account at the hardware store. There’s a lot of throwback, a lot of things that make it seem like an old-fashioned town. A lot of that comes from quirkiness.”

Other residents were pleased by the decision. Many people who opposed the Sunday closure argued that tourists who didn’t know about the longstanding rule often hauled their belongings to the beach, only to find it was closed. They said it reflected poorly on their diverse community.

Shane Martins, who bought a home in Ocean Grove in 2019 and had protested the beach closure, said he thinks the decision to keep it open will allow residents to do as they want on a Sunday morning, including those who might choose to worship in a pavilion by the beach.

Since Sunday’s forecast is 70 degrees and partly sunny, Mr. Martins is planning to put on his seersucker bathing suit and bring a bag of cherries and his blue-striped chair to the beach.

“I’m hopeful this will allow us to move forward,” he said. “If this were the wrong decision, it would probably be raining.”