4 South Jersey Churches Sue State To Reopen

Four South Jersey churches are suing the state to allow them to reopen to their doors. The pastors at two churches in Millville, one in Vineland and one in Swedesboro have filed a lawsuit asking for an injunction asking that their respective churches be permitted to open to worshippers.

The lawsuit, which names Gov. Phil Murphy, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal and Superintendent of the State Police Colonel Patrick Callahan as defendants, claims the churches can reopen while maintaining social distancing measures.

It also says most of the world’s major religions congregate worship essential to practice their faith. Religious services weren’t deemed an essential business capable of remaining open by the state.

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Dwelling Place Network, House of Praise Church, Cornerstone Community Church and New Jersey Life Church are seeking the ability to reopen, and to have the state pay their legal costs.

Ronald Coleman, the attorney representing the churches, cited a letter from the Attorney General of Nevada to that state’s governor.

“We understand these directives were issued in the midst of an uncertain situation, which may have required quick decisions based on changing information,” Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband wrote to Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak. “We are concerned, however, that the flat prohibition against ten or more persons gathering for inperson worship services — regardless of whether they maintain social distancing guidelines — impermissibly treats religious and nonreligious organizations unequally. These directives may violate the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, unless the government can prove a compelling interest and pursued the least restrictive means possible.”

“Once the congregations show they can meet the safety guidelines, it won’t due to make a blanket prohibition against worship,” Coleman said.

During his news conference on Tuesday, Murphy reiterated that houses of worship are included in the ban of inside gatherings involving 10 or more people.

“This is a question of doing it responsibly and doing it at the right time,” Murphy said. “At least up until now if somebody has more than the amount of gathering capacity that we’ve got, which is 10 people indoors, and communion is being served, we would ask, respectfully, to not do that.”

Pastor Richard Myers of the New Life Church in Millville said certain forms of worship are essential and can only be done in person, including speaking in tongues, lifting of the hands by the congregation, Divine healing and other forms of charismatic active worship such as instrumental music, banner marches, dance, flags and various other displays of celebration.

“We will enforce a six-foot social distance ration between family units and everyone will be required to wear a mask with the exception of the musicians, singers and pastor, who will of course be on stage and at least 20 feet away from any other person or group,” Myers said. “We will also have hand sanitizer stations throughout the church, with a concentration at entrance and exit points. Masked and gloved greeters, security personnel and crowd control agents will control entrance and exiting, social distancing, masks requirements, taking temperatures with a non-contact instrument and observing compliance.”

The church plans to reduce indoor occupancy to between 156 and 180 worshippers, which is less than 25 percent of the church’s occupancy permit, and to have only five people on a 40-foot stage.

Pastor Bobby Bledsoe, of Dwelling Place in Vineland, said his church serves a low-income demographic, and very few of them are able to participate in services online or using social media.

He said his church would hold three services on Sunday morning, which would allow the 140 worshippers to go to different services and more than adequately follow social distancing guidelines. They also have Monday and Wednesday evening services.

Pastor Ralph Graves said Cornerstone Community Church in Millville would also have three Sunday services, each limited to 50 people following social distancing guidelines. After each service, the church would be sanitized.

Pastor Steve Burton, of the House of Praise in Swedesboro, said they can accommodate 250 people, but only 45 attend Sunday morning services. He said they would be able to adhere to social distancing guidelines, and everyone would have to wear masks and sanitize their hands.

The lawsuit was announced a week after Bible Baptist Church in Clementon reopened in violation of the governor’s executive order, which was put in place to stifle the spread of the coronavirus. The bible church said the governor violated both state and federal law when he executed his stay-at-home order on March 16. Read more here: South Jersey Church Reopens In Spite Of Stay-At-Home Order

That church was cited for holding two services over the weekend, Callahan said during a Tuesday afternoon news conference.

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