NOT EVEN GOD'S HOUSE IS SAFE FROM THIEVES
Pastor: We pray for them

Saturday, April 11, 2009
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Sacrilegious Jersey City thieves trashed and burglarized a Greenville church on Holy Thursday, but the forgiving pastor is taking it in stride and preparing for tomorrow's 6 a.m. Easter Sunday sunrise service.

"I don't think anyone is angry and it's just going to make us stronger," said Pastor James N. Rembert of the Sanctified Church of Jesus Christ on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive at Wilkinson Avenue.

"The people who did it, they need help. We are praying for them. I don't think anyone is angry."

Thieves smashed in three of the church's doors and stole two snow plows worth about $540 from a storage garage between Monday and noon Thursday, authorities said.

The unpious punks took all of Rembert's vestments from a closet and left them in a pile on the floor, knocked over almost every pew in the sanctuary and toppled the lectern, where the Gospel is read.

The burglars entered rooms behind the altar and smashed two televisions, a VCR and a hotplate. The door to Rembert's office was also smashed in and the room was ransacked.

One saving grace is that the thieves apparently didn't find what they were looking for - the room that contained more than $3,000 in cash and musical equipment worth about that much.

"They didn't see it was there, and it isn't there any more," said Rembert.

Rembert has been pastor at the church, established in 1969, for 25 years. He said about 40 to 50 people attend Sunday services, but he expects more tomorrow for Easter services.

His first thought when he walked into the church after the burglary was: "This is something from TV, not from my life."

But yesterday the pastor said, "Trouble comes to make us stronger, not weaker. We are here to do God's will and our God is not a God of fear."

Rembert said anyone who would like to help the parish recover from the theft and damage can call (201) 341-9490.