Church Eminent Domain Threatens 'Sacred Ground', Toms River Man Says

TOMS RIVER, NJ ? Tim Williamson says he finds peace and solace in the moments he spends at the memorial garden at Christ Episcopal Church in Toms River.

It is a reverent site. There is a simple cross standing at the focal point. Names embossed on plaques hang on the stone walls. Azaleas were blooming and Easter lilies sat alongside stone benches. An oasis on the 10.8-acre church property, for families whose loved ones have died.

Williamson's mother's ashes are buried in that garden. She has been gone since 2015 after dying of cancer. He visits often.

"Every few weeks," he said Tuesday. "St. Patrick's Day (the day she died). Her birthday, other special days."

The moments of solace he finds in the garden have given way to distress and despair for Williamson and his family in the wake of a vote by the Toms River Township Council to take the first step in an attempt to take over the church's property at 415 Washington St. by eminent domain.

The council voted 4-3 on April 30 to introduce an ordinance authorizing the administration to seek to purchase the property, including by eminent domain, with Council President Justin Lamb, Vice President Craig Coleman, and Council members William Byrne and Lynn O'Toole voting in favor, and Councilmen Tom Nivison, Jim Quinlisk and David Ciccozzi voting against.

Mayor Dan Rodrick has said he wants to turn the property into a large recreational area with a large playground, pickleball courts and other facilities.

A public hearing and final vote on the ordinance is anticipated to be held on May 28.

Church officials and the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey have said they will fight the move in court, which they allege is driven by a desire to block efforts to serve the homeless. The church has an application before the Toms River Board of Adjustment that appears to be headed for a vote on May 22 to operate a 17-bed shelter for those who are homeless at the property, a proposal that has met with significant opposition.

"... it is clear and obvious that the Mayor is not in favor of the application and continues to voice his opinion. It would appear that he is now taking the position that he can either purchase the property (although same is not for sale) from the Diocese or use Eminent Domain to prevent the application," wrote Michael York, the attorney representing Christ Church. "... This attempt to use eminent domain as an excuse to obtain property is not disguised in this instance. Adding a property as a last minute Council agenda item is clear and obvious bad faith."

Williamson said it's more than bad faith.

"The vote to proceed with the ordinance was not just a political act," he wrote in a letter to the council the morning after the vote. "It was a moral moment. And in that moment, some remained silent."

The council "could have paused. They could have taken a breath. They could have said, 'Let us not rush into removing sacred ground from our community.' Some chose that path. Others did not," he wrote.

Marita Williamson's name is one of dozens on the plaques in the garden, which was consecrated in 1984. Tim Williamson, who was 30 when his mother died at the age of 66, got married at Christ Episcopal Church in 2021 because it was a way to have his mother close on that special day. They went to the garden after the ceremony with flowers and said a prayer. Also buried at the garden is another member of the Williamson family, William Caldwell, who had been married to Tim's sister Colleen Williamson-Caldwell. He died less than four months after the couple married in 2008, Tim said.

Tim Williamson plans to visit the garden again when his daughter is baptized at Christ Episcopal Church over Memorial Day weekend. The nearness of her baptism to the date of the next council meeting, May 28, is a striking coincidence, he said.

May 28 also happens to be the same date his mother was diagnosed with cancer years ago, and it is the birthdate of their sister, Jennifer, and their brother, Brian.

"My sister mentioned it," Tim Williamson said, referring to Colleen. "Same day as the second vote."

He has not slept well since the potential eminent domain move first surfaced, Williamson said.

"I haven?t been able to stop thinking about it since the meeting," he said. The potential that the property will be taken over, leaving the fate of the garden up in the air, is extremely unsettling, he said.

It distresses him more, Williamson said, because his mother served the residents of Toms River for more than 20 years as a paramedic, first with the Silverton First Aid Squad and then, in 1995, joining MONOC as a paid paramedic. She also served in the U.S. Army, and volunteered with the Chariot Riders,an organization that provides therapeutic horseback riding opportunities for those with a variety of emotional and cognitive needs.

"Our family has been part of this town for decades," he said. Not in the political arena, but in serving the community in various ways, including his own service in the U.S. Marine Corps after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "She saved lives," he said of his mother.

Williamson said he is speaking out not only for his family and his mother but for the many other families whose loved ones are memorialized there. He is hoping and urging others to speak out as well, including the Toms River Regional Board of Education.

In a letter he sent to the school board, he acknowledged the board has no say in the decision, but urged its members to speak out and to be an example for the district's students by not sitting on the sidelines.

"Our children are watching. And you are the ones who lead them," he wrote. "If the Board of Education stays silent while ground like that is taken, then no lesson in civics or character will matter. You are teaching already. Whether you mean to or not. You are showing them whether courage still matters. Whether truth is still a value. Whether we still know the difference between what is right and what is easy."

"We are just one voice out of many," Williamson said by phone Tuesday, adding that the effort to take the church property is wrong even if the memorial garden was not in the mix. The garden, and his mother's ashes being there, make it far more personal.

"The land where my mother?s ashes rest, the memorial garden of Christ Episcopal Church, is now in the path of government seizure," he wrote in the letter to the school board. "Not for a highway. Not for public safety. But for repurposing. For redesign. For something that cannot hold the weight of what already lies there.

"That garden is not a plot," he wrote. "It is a promise."

"The next meeting is not here yet," he wrote to the council. "There is still time. Still space to lead. Still a chance for those who held their voice to find it again. To the council members who stayed quiet or voted to press forward ? I ask you to search your heart. Ask yourself how you would feel if it were your family?s ashes in that soil. Ask yourself if this is the vote you want your name remembered for.

"Because when this season passes, and the next issue rises, what will remain is how we treated the sacred," he said to the council. "What will be written is not the policy, but the principle we did or did not stand for. Silence has a cost. But so does courage. I pray this town chooses the better one."

"Christ Episcopal Church is not just property. It is not just a building. It is the resting place of loved ones. It is a place where ashes were laid, prayers were whispered, and generations sought peace," he wrote. "That space cannot be replaced."