The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1900-12-15
2I0 AGAINST 70
Sale of the Tabernacle to
the Elks Ratified Last
Night.
a NATTER OF DOLLARS AND CENTS
Downtown People Ran $3.50.
a Year in Debt and There
Were Other Bills.
a NATTER OF DOLLARS AND CENTS

At meeting of the Society of the First
Congregational Church of Jersey City,
held last night, at the church, corner OF
Bergen and Boyd avenues, the sale of the
Tabernacle and its Assembly Hail to the
Elks was ratified by a vote of 219 to 20.
The church was filled to the doors and
seats had to be placed in the aisles to
accommodate the people who attended. It
was the regular night for the annual
meeting of the church, which should have
been held at eight, but the society meet
ing was called to order and nothing was
said about the church meeting until eleven
O'Clock, when the vote had been cast.
Then the church meeting was postponed.
Mr. George Russell was chosen chairman
of the meeting Mr.. Isaac Forshay was
secretary.
A resolution was read which stated
that the trustees of the church had
sold the Tabernacle building and the
down town branch of the First Congre-
gational Church had gone to law in dis
pute of the sale, and that the sale had
been declared illegal. The resolution de-
scribed the manner of the sale and the
amount paid for the property and recon-
mended the ratification of the sale. After
the TcSOiuIlOA ndQ DGGu OlSIeQ ISI4Aoi h@
were called for Then ensued long period
of discussion in which those for and
against the sale took an active part.
Mr.. Scudder, when granted the floor,
made the following address: when ten
or fifteen years ago I was called to the
pastorship of the First Congregational
Church of Jersey City the finances of the
church were not in the best of condition
/ made every effort to raise the financial
condition of the church and in short
time the affairs of the church were in
good condition, but in the last few years
the financial condition of the church has
been gradually sinking, sinking, until they
were at very low state. When the South
Bergen Reformed Church and the Taber-
nacle were merged into one it was thought
that the united churches would prosper.
will state my opinion of the cause of the
dissension between the two branches of
the church. In the first place jealousy
was aroused in the members of the down.
town branch, and in consequence thereof
bad feeling was aroused between The
branches.
1.-THE emigration of great number of
those who had attended the downtown
branch to the Hill was also largely re-
sponsible for the weakening of the
church. The members downtown failed to
contribute enough to the treasury to sup
port the downtown church and the debts
gradually accumulated. Some of the dea-
cons resigned the Ladies' Aid Society
packed up their belongings and left and
the Sunday school fell off making it nee
essary to take the step which has been
taken.
1.-THE members of the downtown branch,
trying to use the public press to air the
troubles for their advantage made them
lose the sympathy of the public. I think
that they have been disloyal to the church
as many did not contribute at all and they
were disloyal in not coming into the up
town church and making that their home
when they saw the downtown brancn
could not get along. I have no i'll will
towards any one and want to know why
we can't make friends and live in peace
and harmony, all working together"
Chairman Russell was obliged to stop
Mr.. Scudder at this point as a time limit
of five minutes had been placed on each
speech. Mr.. Frank Blake then took the
floor and read paper in which he show
ed the figures of the gradual increase of
the debts of the downtown branch year
by year from 1897 to 1900 He placed the
debt at an average of $3.50 year. He said
the action had been taken from business
standpoint by the Board of Trustees. He
stated that the last time Subscriptions
had been asked for only one response had
been received from downtown and that
for the sum of $3.50 for the entire year.
When Mr.. Blake's time was up Mr..
Frank Hall took the paper and continued
the statement of the finances.
Miss Lille Vance was next recognized
by the chair She said. 'tAs for the pas
tors remarks l will pass them over but I
want to ask, friends, If you think it shows
the proper Christian spirit to treat US as
we have been treated. AS for the accusa-
tion of jealousy I will say that it is not
so. We are glad to see you in prosper
Gus condition and only ask that a fair
chance be given us to try and pay the
bills of our church and keep it going. We
have asked for bread and you have given
us stone. Legally you may have the
right to sell the church, but morally you
have not and the proper Christian spirit
is not there. There is debt of $1,000,
which you say we owe, and so you have
sold the church for $4,000 to pay this.
There are at least fifty people here who
helped contract this debt, and then moved
away and came up here and now they say
that we owe it. We do not owe it, but we
with those fifty people do owe it, and it
is an honest debt and we only ask a fair
chance to pay it off =
In the middle of Miss yance's speech
the sexton was told to raise the par
titions between the church aand Sunday
school room. This made a great noise.
which drowned Miss yanee's voice. A
Tabernacler asked that the noise be
stopped till Miss Vance concluded, which
was done.
When Miss Vance's time was declared
up voice was heard disputing the fact
and saying she had one more minute
Mr.. Stewart moved that the time be ex-
tended another FIVE minutes but the mo-
ton on being put was lost,
MIR. Hill then spoke and asked to know
how many people were present at the
meeting of the church when the action was
taken. He accused the trustees of looking
for 1oopholes, when he was answered that
quorum was present and not given the
actual count A quorum is 2l He said
that HGod would hold them responsible
for their actions. MI. Hill also asked
! them how they would like to have To-