Posted on 05/05/2025 5:30:19 PM PDT by xxqqzz
An Episcopal congregation here, after facing months of backlash from some neighbors in response to its proposal for a 17-bed homeless shelter, now has been targeted by ersey]the town for possible public seizure of the 11-acre church property through eminent domain.
The congregation, Christ Episcopal Church, says the property is not for sale, yet the elected town council on April 30, during a raucous and contentious meeting, agreed to begin the process of buying or seizing the church and five other properties to create two new town parks.
The Rev. Lisa A. Hoffman, Christ Church’s rector, said that a Toms River resident alerted a parishioner to the addition of the proposed eminent domain ordinance to the meeting’s agenda, and that parishioner contacted Hoffman the evening before the meeting. The town had not notified the church about the pending vote, she said.
“It’s just really shocking and surprising and very disappointing,” Hoffman told Episcopal News Service. “There’s a lot of anger and frustration going on.”
She said she doesn’t see the proposed park plan as a “legitimate reason to seize the property.”
Mayor Daniel Rodrick has been highly critical of the presence of people experiencing homelessness in Toms River, accusing Ocean County of exaggerating the homeless issue and “dumping” homeless people into the township. He has criticized rock star Jon Bon Jovi’s pop-up JBJ Soul Kitchen at the downtown library, claiming it attracts people who are homeless.
The church now faces two different issues with the town. Its overnight shelter plan needs the approval of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. That vote is due on May 22. Six days later, on May 28, the town council is scheduled to take public comment and make a final decision on the land-seizure ordinance.
(Excerpt) Read more at episcopalnewsservice.org ...
I support churches buying apartments to try and house people, to give them that chance at rejoining society. Not unconditionally, but with conditions that they demonstrate they are getting their life together.
Churches have to be tough to those they are ministering to in order to minister to them successfully.
All You Need to Know
“Episcopaliens are just Catholics who flunked latin” - Mom
I have a friend who grew up in a very Catholic family tell me a couple weeks ago that they switched to an Episcopal church. Asked him if he told his folks yet and he hadn’t.
True.
The Episcopal Church does teach justification by faith alone. The Anglican Church is certainly Protestant. Whether they can, with their rejection of certain clear historical doctrines, continue to call themselves Christian is a question most every mainline Protestant church has probably fielded in the last few years.
The city will find themselves on the losing side of any legal challenge. I would assume that the land is currently zoned in such a way that a shelter or similar occupancy would be permitted. Otherwise simply denying a variance would be the sensible course of action.
If certain elements such as parking, drainage, hours of operation, number of residents are determined by the city whether with or without public input that would be the way for the city to make sure the shelter has the least amount of impact on the area.
But planning to seize the land in an obvious attempt to avoid their own zoning ordinance is a wrong one. Doing so when a church is involved just ups their legal fees.
Sounds like a Bill of Attainder to me.
Toms River is in Ocean County, New Jersey, one of the most conservative counties on the East Coast north of central Virginia and the most conservative county in the Garden State. Trump carried the county by a more than two to one margin. Yet subversive liberal cells exist in this area, such as this Episcopal church and probably other mainline Protestant churches, where the clergy believe that the Bible is not the sole guide to life and salvation, but rather “social justice” and “science”, which are superior to Biblical teachings.
It sounds like the town doesn’t like the church horning in on their shtick.
The town would rather have the homeless camped out in a park than housed under a roof.
EC
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