Church Vandalized Next To Pride Flag Display In Morristown

MORRISTOWN, NJ — A sign outside a Morristown church promoting acceptance for all community members was vandalized over the weekend.

Morristown’s Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, an LGBTQ-affirming church, had its welcome sign vandalized less than 12 hours after Pride month flags were put on display.

Rev. Cynthia Black, rector of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, said the flags are always displayed during Pride month, but this year they were displayed a few days earlier in honor of a lesbian community member whose funeral was held at the church.

Black told Patch that she put up the pride flags on Friday night, leaving the church around 9 p.m., and returned Saturday morning for the memorial service when she was told that the sign was split in half.

"There were a large number of people at the funeral who were LGBTQ, who were obviously pretty distraught about it," Black said.

The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer is now accepting donations to replace the vandalized welcome sign because the church's insurance is unlikely to cover the cost of repair.

According to Black, the total cost of replacing the sign, which was installed in 2016, is $15,050.

Passersby have stopped to photograph the colorful flags in previous years, even posing in front of them, according to Black.

"It gets positive attention generally. In fact, Friday when, when we were out there, we hadn't even finished putting them up when people had started taking pictures, and that's what happens all June long, just because they look fun," Black said.

Despite the positivity, Black told Patch this was not the first vandalism attack against the church regarding its stance on the LGBTQ community.

"We've had flags stolen before. Then we have another sign in front of the parish house, a smaller one, and somebody several years ago took a baseball bat or something similar and destroyed it. They really bent it, I mean, we had to take it down," Black said.

Concerning the investigation, Black stated that they had reported the incident to the police over the weekend, but that a detective informed her that no security cameras in the area had captured the vandalism.

"People love the sign as much as they love the pride flags. It says all are welcome across the top, and then it says, gay, straight, transgender, married, single and divorced. I mean, it sort of lists all types of humanity around it. But I can see where somebody might take exception to that. I guess our wish is that it wasn't that way," Black said.