Join us for worship on Sundays during the summer at 10:00 a.m. Our pastor, the Rev. Bob Stevens, preaches and teaches each Sunday. You will enjoy traditional organ music played on a classic pipe organ by our minister of music, Doug Serfass.

We enjoy a blend of traditional and newer hymns and songs, and our services are shaped both by traditional forms as well as the needs of contemporary people.

On the second Sunday of February we celebrate our annual Honorary First Defenders service. This special service commemorates the men of the Allen Rifles Company, forerunner to our local 213th Area Support Group of the National Guard. During the Civil War, they were known as the First Defenders because they were among the first to respond to President Lincoln’s call to defend Washington D.C. in 1861. Those men came to Zion’s church for prayer prior to going to the train station to travel to Reading, then to Washington, D.C.

This annual service commemorates that event with Civil War re-enactors as well as current members of the Honorary First Defenders.

Our service on Memorial Day weekend, on the last Sunday of May each year, recalls the men of the local militia who met on May 27, 1776 to vote on several “resolutions calling for the replacement of the existing provincial government based on royal decree with one based on the will of the people. In effect, this was a local declaration of independence made five weeks before the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia adopted the Declaration of Independence,” according to local historian, Dr. Mahlon Hellerich, PhD. Our annual service commemorates this event by highlighting significant issues from the period. Revolutionary War re-enactors from local organizations participate by firing muskets, and a wreath is laid at memorial plaques honoring all those who have served our country, and especially those who died at Zion’s church when it was a makeshift hospital during the Revolutionary War.

This special community service is an annual re-enactment of the reading of the Declaration of Independence to the residents of Allentown—then called Northampton Towne—in July, 1776. Pip the Mouse will be a special guest at Zion United Church of Christ this year, distributing free revolutionary era three-corner hats or “mob caps” to children in attendance at the 10:00 a.m. service.

“ Back in 1776, one person read the entire document to an assembled crowd,” explains the Rev. Bob Stevens, pastor of the church. “ However we encourage everyone in the congregation to participate through a responsive-style reading of the Declaration. In fact anyone who attends may take on the role of a colonist who rails against King George’s ‘injuries and usurpations.’ ”

The service also features the ringing of Allentown’s liberty bell, which originally hung in the church tower and was used to gather the residents for the reading of the Declaration as well as for other special occasions.

This year our guest soloist is Bernice Green who will be performing several songs, including “You Got to Move,” from Touchstone Theatre’s recent musical, Another River Flows. The musical was the result of a special oral history project, so our guest reader is Ethel Drayton-Craig, Director of the Multicultural Center at Muhlenberg College, who will speak about the Lehigh Valley Black African Heritage Project.

On Sunday, September 23 at our 10:45 a.m. service, we commemorate the hiding of the Liberty Bell and eleven other bells under the floorboards of Zion’s church in 1777. This year, Colonial Pip the Mouse will be making a special guest appearance. Join us!