Cammeyer v. Corporation of United German Lutheran Churches

poration did bear and pay all the charges and expenses of maintaining divine worship in the said St. Matthews Church of every kind and description, including the salaries of all servants and officers, save and except only the maintenance or recompense of the minister of the said English congregagation ; and that the said defendants, the congregation, had continued to bear and pay such costs and expenses with the exception aforesaid. That the said English corporation had been gradually but regularly declining for some time prior to the filing of the bill; and that the same congregation continued to decline thereafter until the same had been reduced to an extremely small body. That, as the petitioners had been informed and believed, the minister of the said English congregation, namely, the Reverend Frederick W. Geissenhainer, had retired from the alleged pastoral charge thereof, having, on Sunday afternoon, preached his farewell sermon in the said St. Matthews Church. That, although the said complainants, Augustus T. Cammeyer and others of the said English Lutheran congregation, had, ever since the commencement of this suit, refused to pay any pew rent and nevertheless continued to occupy pews in the said church for the purpose of attending the English service on Sunday afternoons, yet the petitioners, from respect to the order and injunction of the court, had not interfered with such occupation. That they were not certainly informed whether or not the said the Reverend Frederick W. Geissenhainer consented to relinquish his alleged pastoral charge of the said English congregation or not or whether he had been required to resign and yield up the same by the said persons constituting the so called English Lutheran congregation of St. Matthews Church. That, as the petitioners were informed and believed, the said persons called the English congregation or some of them, including several of the complainants in the suit, had recently agreed with the congregation of a church edifice in Orange street, called St. James Church, that they, the said congregation of the said St. James Church, should transfer their church establishment and worship to the said St. Matthews Church—as well their congregation as their minister, organist, choiristers and other officers— and should form, together with St. Matthews Church, one

consolidated and united congregation to worship in the latter church on Sunday afternoons in the English tongue under the pastoral charge of the Reverend Mr. Martin, who had, for some time past, been the minister of the said St. James Church. Also, that it was contemplated and intended by the said English congregation to admit the said congregation and church establishment of the said St. James Church into St. Matthews Church according to their said arrangement for that purpose on Sunday afternoon then next and regularly thereafter; and that the said congregation of St. James Church were about to shut up and dispose of their said church. That the said congregation of the said St. James Church had not, nor had any of them hired pews or seats in the said St. Matthews Church, but, as the petitioners were informed and believed, designed to enter the said St. Matthews Church and enjoy the use and benefit thereof without paying pew rent or otherwise regarding the rights and interests of the petitioners therein, under color and pretence of being authorized so to do by the injunction aforesaid—whereas, the petitioners respectfully insisted that the said minister and congregation of St. James Church were not nor was any of them entitled to any right or benefit under the said injunction. That, being in full possession of the said St. Matthews Church and having all the officers thereof under their direction and control, it was practicable to resist and prevent the entrance thereunto of any persons not authorized by the injunction to use the same ; but that, being bound by such injunction to permit the English congregation to worship therein on Sunday afternoons, and it being unusual to prevent any persons, even casual passersby, from entering churches on Sunday and participating in divine worship, much difficulty existed in the exercise of such right of exclusion by the petitioners, whilst the said injunction remained in force, except under the express order and sanction of the court: Prayer, for a writ of injunction against the complainants, restraining them from using or causing to be used for divine service on Sunday afternoons the said St. Matthews Church by any persons except the alleged English Lutheran congregation mentioned in the

prior injunction or an order to that effect or for such other or further order, &c.

qqie affidavits, used in opposition, did not go to contradict the statements in the petition, but they set forth a resolution which passed in the vestry in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine: “ Resolved, That the Lutheran congregation of St. James’s having expressed their wish to re-unite themselves with the English congregation of St. Matthews Church, we will endeavor to make such arrangements for that purpose, as far as that can be done for the benefit of our respective congregations.” Also, that as the state of things presented a desirable opportunity to build up the English congregation according to the said resolution, the vestry of St. Matthews did invite the pastor of the church of St. James to officiate for them in St. Matthews Church and did also invite his congregation to worship with the English congregation of St. Matthews in the said church on the said occasions, which invitations had been accepted, both by the pastor and by the said congregation—and, consequently, the said congregation intended to worship on the mornings and evenings of each Sunday in their own church and on Sunday afternoons in St. Matthews Church.