Published April 01. 2026 08:07AM<\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s United Church of Christ, 139 N. Fourth St., Emmaus, officially has been recognized as an Open and Affirming church by the United Church of Christ.<\/p>\n
The certification means the members of St. John\u2019s are making a public, official declaration they celebrate diversity and actively affirm God\u2019s love by welcoming all people into the church family and ministry.<\/p>\n
An Open and Affirming covenant approved by the congregation states: \u201cAs disciples of Jesus Christ, we proclaim that every person is a beloved child of God, created in God\u2019s image. We welcome all \u2013 regardless of race, ethnicity, age, physical or mental ability, marital or economic status, national origin, faith background, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression \u2013 into the full life and leadership of this church.\u201d<\/p>\n
By adopting their covenant, which is considered a binding promise, the congregation is following the Apostle Paul\u2019s admonition to \u201caccept one another, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe welcome and affirm all people \u2013 no exceptions \u2013 into the full life and leadership of the church,\u201d Dr. Paul Knappenberger, pastor of St. John\u2019s, said. \u201cThat\u2019s not politics. That\u2019s discipleship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knappenberger continued: \u201cEvery person is created in the image of God, redeemed by the love of Christ and gathered by the Holy Spirit. That\u2019s not a slogan. That\u2019s the Gospel.<\/p>\n
\u201cOpen and Affirming is simply the church catching up to the wideness of God\u2019s mercy.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the new covenant, they are making a public commitment that everyone is welcome to become active members of St. John\u2019s family \u2013 not only for worship services, but in all aspects of church life: membership, leadership and ordination. It is a commitment to both inclusion and justice.<\/p>\n
While all churches may claim to welcome everyone, the UCC maintains that\u2019s not necessarily true. Many people have learned the hard way that churches declaring \u201cAll Are Welcome\u201d often does not apply to them. LGBTQ+ folks, for example, can\u2019t assume that every church will be a safe and comfortable fit for themselves and their families.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world is full of people who have been told \u2018no\u2019 in God\u2019s name,\u201d Knappenberger said. \u201cSome of those \u2018nos\u2019 happened in churches. If nothing can separate a person from the love of Christ, then the church has no business acting like it can. Dehumanizing anyone doesn\u2019t just harm a person. It insults the Creator.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contributed PhotoDr. Paul Knappenberger stands by the sign reflecting the values of the congregation of St. John\u2019s United Church of Christ in Emmaus.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published April 01. 2026 08:07AM St. John\u2019s United Church of Christ, 139 N. Fourth St., Emmaus, officially has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-154277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}