For the first time since 1869, a small slice of the Jersey Shore will be open to the public on Sunday mornings.
The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, which owns a picturesque beach, has had to agree to open its gates or face fines of up to $25,000 a day.
But the Christian group is not giving up the fight.
“For 155 years we have closed our beach on Sunday mornings to honor God — a core pillar of this community since the founding of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association,” the organization said in a statement to The Post on Wednesday.
“Now the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is ordering us to open our privately owned beach on Sunday mornings. We are challenging this order to preserve our property rights and religious freedom,” the statement said.
“We are currently compelled to comply with the NJDEP order… but have not ceased nor abandoned our quest to protect our religious and property rights.”
Still, the group said it would hire lifeguards to staff the beach in the hours before noon on Sundays, when it has historically opened to the public.
The Methodist association calls its land just north of Asbury Park “God’s Square Mile at the Jersey Shore,” and has closed the beach during those hours for generations in order “to honor God.”
After some locals complained and started to defy the group’s decree, state regulators ordered on Oct. 12 that the beach must be open on Sunday mornings under New Jersey’s beach access laws.
In court papers, the association fired back that the beach was open to the public for 365 days a year — and for 99.5% of the time, with the exception being Sunday mornings, and called that “abundantly reasonable.”
But the DEP ruled otherwise and ordered they “cease its use of chains and padlocks or any other barriers that restrict reasonable public access to the beachfront.”
In a ruling Tuesday, DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette denied the association’s request to rescind the order, dismissing the claim that it was doing the right thing most of the time.
“While [Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association’s] intent to comply with the Public Access Law during the majority of the calendar year is acknowledged, the association’s legal compliance at most times does not justify its illegal violations at other times,” LaTourette wrote.
The DEP order dictates that the association could be fined $25,000 per day if they violate it.
The group was founded as a Methodist retreat, with religious services centered around a massive hall on the property called The Great Auditorium surrounded by tents occupied by pilgrims who come to worship.
Under a state charter dating to 1870, outsiders were prohibited from setting foot on the private beach during the weekly Sunday morning services.
But as the area grew, some neighbors took issue — and questioned whether the age-old practice was discriminating against non-Christians and other sectors of society.
“We just feel that’s wrong, that it’s not what America is supposed to be about,” neighbor Paul Martin told the Associated Press earlier this month.
“It makes living here very uncomfortable when you’re gay, when you’re Jewish, an atheist or agnostic.”
With Post wires
