Boardwalk Chapel (formally, "The Boardwalk Chapel") is a summertime Christian Gospel outreach on the two-mile boardwalk on the barrier island of The Wildwoods, New Jersey which holds 77 consecutive evening services during June, July, and August, open to boardwalkers.
In the early 1940s Rev. Leslie Dunn, pastor of Calvary Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Wildwood, New Jersey, walked up and down the boardwalk of The Wildwoods conducting open-air preaching services. He discovered an empty lot towards the southern end of the boardwalk that was to be sold at a citywide tax auction. He persuaded fellow church members to allow him to bid, but no more than US$3,000; Dunn was the highest bidder at $2,950. [1] The Gospel Pavilion, its original name, had been built during the waning months of World War II. Nightly services began in July 1945, a few weeks before Japan's surrender.
Since its inception the Chapel has been operated by the Presbytery of New Jersey of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Its hand-drawn logo depicts the Christian cross rising out of an Atlantic Ocean wave.
Over the years, the chapel has become a landmark for tourists visiting Wildwood. In 2005 a Washington Post travel article said "People come to Wildwood for its beaches ... and for the boardwalk, a roughly three-mile-long human circus of noise, junk food and amusement rides. The boardwalk—part honky-tonk, part family playground—has a few quirks that give it an endearing quality. The ... Boardwalk Chapel, between a tattoo parlor and a pizza parlor, has been the voice in the carny wilderness for 61 years." [2]
In certain Christian churches, holy orders are the ordained ministries of bishop, priest (presbyter), and deacon, and the sacrament or rite by which candidates are ordained to those orders. Churches recognizing these orders include the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, Assyrian, Old Catholic, Independent Catholic and some Lutheran churches. Except for Lutherans and some Anglicans, these churches regard ordination as a sacrament. The Anglo-Catholic tradition within Anglicanism identifies more with the Roman Catholic position about the sacramental nature of ordination.
Wildwood is a city in Cape May County, New Jersey, United States. It is part of the Ocean City Metropolitan Statistical Area and is a popular summer resort destination along the Jersey Shore. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's year-round population was 5,325, reflecting a decline of 111 (-2.0%) from the 5,436 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 952 (+21.2%) from the 4,484 counted in the 1990 Census. With visitors, the population can swell to 250,000 during the summer months. Wildwood was the first city in New Jersey to have a female mayor, Doris W. Bradway, who was ousted in a 1938 recall election.
Charles Grandison Finney was an American Presbyterian minister and leader in the Second Great Awakening in the United States. He has been called the "Father of Modern Revivalism."
A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin pulpitum. The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accessed by steps, with sides coming to about waist height. From the late medieval period onwards, pulpits have often had a canopy known as the sounding board, tester or abat-voix above and sometimes also behind the speaker, normally in wood. Though sometimes highly decorated, this is not purely decorative, but can have a useful acoustic effect in projecting the preacher's voice to the congregation below. Most pulpits have one or more book-stands for the preacher to rest his or her bible, notes or texts upon.
The Jersey Shore is the coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. Geographically, the term encompasses about 141 miles (227 km) of oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy in the north to Cape May Point in the south. The region includes Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Atlantic, and Cape May counties, which are in the central and southern parts of the state. The Jersey Shore hosts the highest concentration of oceanside boardwalks in the United States.
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) is a confessional Presbyterian denomination located primarily in the northern United States. It was founded by conservative members of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) who strongly objected to the Modernist theology during the 1930s. It has had an influence on evangelicalism far beyond its size.
The camp meeting is a form of Protestant Christian religious service originating in England and Scotland as an evangelical event in association with the communion season. It was held for worship, preaching and communion on the American frontier during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century. Revivals and camp meetings continued to be held by various denominations, and in some areas of the mid-Atlantic, led to the development of seasonal cottages for meetings.
Edmund Prosper Clowney was a theologian, educator, and pastor.
The Wildwoods are a group of five communities in Cape May County, New Jersey, all of which are situated on the Island of Five Mile Beach, a barrier island facing the Atlantic Ocean. These Jersey Shore communities have relatively small year-round populations and swell significantly during the summer with vacationers.
Fascination is a game commonly found in North American amusement parks, boardwalks and arcades. The game would be considered in the same family as skee ball, in that prizes are often won for playing the game. The game dates to the 1920s as evidenced in pictures of Chutes at the Beach in San Francisco, a park that operated from 1903 - 1928.
WAIV is a radio station licensed that serves Cape May, New Jersey. The station is owned by Equity Communications, L.P. and it simulcasts the Top 40-CHR radio format on co-owned 95.1 WAYV Atlantic City. The studios and offices are in the Bayport One complex in West Atlantic City.
St. John's Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church located at 61 Broad Street in the historic heart of Elizabeth, New Jersey. Now part of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey headquartered in Trenton, it was founded in 1706 by missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, London, England. The current building, consecrated in 1860, is in the neo-Gothic style, with a 126-foot Gothic style tower.
Broomhedge is a small village in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, near Lisburn, approximately 12 miles (19 km) southwest of Belfast. It lies within the Lisburn City Council area, and the Maghaberry electoral ward.
Samuel Miller was a Presbyterian theologian who taught at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Otis Moss III is the pastor of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. He espouses black theology and speaks about reaching inner-city black youth.
Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) church in New York City. The church, on Fifth Avenue at 7 West 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan, has approximately 2,200 members and is one of the larger PCUSA congregations. The church, founded in 1808 as the Cedar Street Presbyterian Church, has been at this site since 1875.
The Presbyterian Church of Brazil is an Evangelical Protestant Christian denomination in Brazil. Oldest of the Reformed family of Protestantism in Brazil. It is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the country, having an estimate 649,510 members, 4,475 ordained ministers and 5,068 churches and parishes. It is also the only Presbyterian denomination in Brazil present in all 26 States and the Federal District. It was founded by the American missionary Rev. Ashbel Green Simonton, who also oversaw the formal organization of the first congregation and the first Presbytery. Although the Presbyterian Church of Rio de Janeiro was only formally organized in January 1863, and the Brazilian church only left the jurisdiction of the joint missions board of the American churches in 1888, when the Synod was formed, the denomination considers the date of Simonton's arrival in Brazil, August 12, 1859, as its foundation date.
Christianity in the 18th century is marked by the First Great Awakening in the Americas, along with the expansion of the Spanish and Portuguese empires around the world, which helped to spread Catholicism.
The Crest Pier is a municipal pier located within the city of Wildwood Crest, New Jersey. The pier is located at Heather Road and Boardwalk. The Wildwood Crest Fishing Club owned and operated the pier for more than 85 years. In 2006, ownership was transferred to the Borough of Wildwood Crest.