Patriots Sunday at Zion’s ‘Liberty Bell’ UCC

Historic Zion’s Liberty Bell Church in downtown Allentown has been celebrating Patriots Sunday on Memorial Day weekend for the past 21 years to commemorate Lehigh County’s “declaration of independence” enacted on May 27, 1776. So the current situation isn’t going to stop their celebration.

Patriot Sunday at Zion’s Church celebrates an important but little-known event in our local history. On May 27, 1776 some 900 associators (militia) met in a field adjacent to the farm of Lorenz Guth in Whitehall Township of Northampton County at the call of the Pennsylvania Provincial Council of Safety. The Council of Safety had issued its call on the recommendation of the Second Continental Congress. The Association adopted a set of resolutions calling for the replacement of the existing provincial government based on royal decree with one based on the will of the people. This was a local declaration of independence made five weeks before the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia adopted the Declaration of Independence. These men repudiated the power of King and Parliament; they wanted freedom from the external control by the British. The Associators came from the nine western townships of Northampton County which later became Lehigh County. The meeting was presided over by Major Philip Boehm, and the pastor of Zion’s church, the Rev. Abraham Blumer, was their chaplain.

The video service will be accessible to anyone from the church’s web page www.LibertyBellChurch.org or via Facebook. For more information, contact the church at 620 W. Hamilton Street, Allentown (610-435-2412).