Americana: Blue Sunday

Quiet Sundays are one thing, but in Ocean Grove (pop. 7,000), N.J., which was founded as a seaside Methodist campsite 110 years ago, they are carried to extremes. Heavy chains block the roads into town, and no cars are allowed to move on the streets. Outdoor work, including gardening around the Victorian cottages, is banned. No one is permitted to go swimming, fishing, skating or buy even an ice cream cone. Until a newsdealer won a court suit several years ago, papers could not be delivered on Sunday.

But now the peaceable kingdom is threatened. Louis Celmer Jr., of nearby Belmar, was convicted of drunken driving in Ocean Grove in 1976. He appealed, claiming that his conviction was invalid because the state legislature had unconstitutionally authorized the Camp Meeting Association of the United Methodist Church to establish Ocean Grove's police force. The New Jersey Supreme Court agreed unanimously, ruling that the theopolis' legal system and ordinances did indeed violate the First Amendment separation of church and state. Said the court: "In effect, the legislature has decreed that in Ocean Grove the church shall be the state and the state shall be the church." So unless Ocean Grove's residents can find a way to stop the ruling from going into effect this week, the streets of the town that describes itself on billboards as GOD'S SQUARE MILE OF HEALTH AND HAPPINESS will look much like those of any other seaside resort. The future, as envisioned by Harold Flood, president of the Camp Meeting Association: "Roller skaters and bicyclists, and even cars on Sunday."