New church in South River opens Sunday

BY JOHN DUNPHY
Staff Writer

SOUTH RIVER — Consider it a homecoming.

At 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon, the Rev. Harold Germain and the Rev. Mollie Germain, pastor and ministers of the Hosanna Our Messiah Emmanuel Christian Church, will hold their first service in South River at the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church on Leonardine Avenue.

Though the husband-and-wife duo have been residents of South River for over 10 years, this weekend’s service is the very first in the borough.

Their church, a full gospel church founded in 1994, has had locations in Piscataway, the Germain’s hometown, and in Randolph in Morris County.

Though many parishioners came from several counties to the Randolph location, including Essex, Middlesex and Union, no one was attending from the area where the church actually was. After four years, the dedicated who traveled up to an hour every Sunday were also beginning to get a little weary of the commute.

“So we’re starting up in South River because we live here,” the Rev. Mollie Germain said. “Members will come and go, but if the founder and pastor live in South River then that is where we need to be.”

The Germain’s both attended Rutgers University where the Rev. Harold Germain received a degree in marketing, while the Rev. Mollie Germain received one in English.

Also a writer with three novels under her belt, she is working on her fourth called “The Walking Wounded,” which she said is about people hurting emotionally and spiritually, and how they can “take the Bible and apply it to those wounds and be whole,” she said.

Hosanna Our Messiah Emmanuel Christian Church was established 11 years ago by the Germain’s as a nondenominational full gospel church that teaches the entire Bible. The Rev. Mollie Germain said other sects only taught parts of the Bible, and the two felt a need to learn from the whole of the religion.

Prior to starting their church, their desire to learn more brought the Germain’s to Decatur, Ga., to The Way, The Truth, The Life Christian Center, a full gospel ministry and to the Giver of Life Bible Institute where they were both ordained into the ministry.

She said there are many full gospel ministries throughout New Jersey and the country, but believes Hosanna Our Messiah Emmanuel to be the first held in South River.

The reverend said she and her husband are very excited to finally be able to hold their services in South River and they hope to build attendance in the borough.

“We’ve always been traveling with the ministry, we haven’t ministered to anyone in the area where we live,” she said. “So I’m looking forward to that.”