Please join the Rev. Bob Stevens, Senior Pastor, Zion’s ‘Liberty Bell’ United Church of Christ, Jay Scales from Elderhorst Bells, Inc., and Doug Pelletier of Trifecta Technologies, for a ceremonial re-starting of the clock and carillon in downtown Allentown’s Liberty Bell Church.
When: Monday, December 21, 2015, 11:45 a.m.

Where: the front steps of Zion’s ‘Liberty Bell’ United Church of Christ 620 W. Hamilton Street, Allentown, PA

For the first time in more than three decades, the Westminster Chimes will be heard in center city Allentown announcing the time on the restored clock in the steeple of historic Zion’s Liberty Bell United Church of Christ.

Each of the four clock faces has been replaced with specially designed backlit faces to highlight the Roman numerals of the hours. The faces will be illuminated from dusk to midnight every day.

“Just in time for Christmas,” the Rev. Bob Stevens, senior pastor, noted, “the carillon will be playing Christmas hymns on the hour.”

The tower clock has not been functional for at least thirty years due to the difficulty of finding mechanical parts for the original complex mechanism that simultaneously turned the clock hands on four faces. The clockworks now are digitized, however the faces preserve the historic look in keeping with the neo-gothic architecture of the building.

The work is being completed as part of a major restoration project at the church which also includes replacement of the slate roof over the sanctuary.

The present church building was completed in 1888, although the congregation has been worshiping in this location continuously since 1762. During the American Revolution, eleven bells from Philadelphia, including the state house bell now known as the Liberty Bell, were hidden under the floorboards of Zion’s church for safekeeping from the British in 1777. The church also is home to the Liberty Bell Museum.

 

Information provided by:

The Rev. Robert T. Stevens, Sr. Pastor
Zion’s United Church of Christ
home of the Liberty Bell Museum
620 W. Hamilton Street
Allentown, PA 18101
610-435-2412
http://www.libertybellchurch.org/

 

 

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