Published May 06. 2026 12:13PM<\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s United Church of Christ in Emmaus celebrated 150 years of faith, service and community in a special \u201cAnniversary Sunday\u201d worship service 10:30 a.m. May 3.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether you\u2019ve been part of St. John\u2019s for years, or you have not been here for years, or you\u2019re visiting for the first time \u2014 we would love to welcome you,\u201d Dr. Paul Knappenberger, the church\u2019s pastor, said of the celebration.<\/p>\n
There was only one service May 3. It included \u201cspecial guests, special music and a spirit of gratitude as we honor our past and recommit to the future,\u201d Knappenberger said.<\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s is observing the 150th anniversary of the founding of the church, initially a German Reformed congregation, throughout 2026.<\/p>\n
Holy Communion was offered during the May 3 worship service and all Christians were welcome to receive it. An hour of fellowship, with refreshments, immediately followed the service. The reception was in St. John\u2019s Fellowship Hall.<\/p>\n
The church is at 139 N. Fourth St. in Emmaus and has a parking lot.<\/p>\n
Organized in 1876, St. John\u2019s was the second non-Moravian congregation in Emmaus.<\/p>\n
It started on Jan. 1, 1876, with about 60 people of the German Reformed faith and tradition. That first service was held in the Moravian Church of Emmaus. The new congregation was allowed to keep meeting in the Moravian Church for six years.<\/p>\n
In 1882, the Reformed and Lutheran congregations that had been holding worship services in the Moravian Church dedicated their own union church on the corner of North Third and Green streets.<\/p>\n
That building still stands and now is the home of Unity of Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n
In May 1924, the Reformed congregation dedicated its own new church building, at Third, Fourth and North streets \u2014 now St. John\u2019s United Church of Christ. The congregation celebrated the 100th anniversary of its current church building two years go.<\/p>\n
In 1934, the church\u2019s name was changed from St. John\u2019s Reformed Church to St. John\u2019s Evangelical and Reformed Church.<\/p>\n
In 1957, it became St. John\u2019s United Church of Christ.<\/p>\n
Contributed PhotoThe congregation of St. John\u2019s United Church of Christ, Emmaus, marks its 150 anniversary with a celebration May 3 at the church, 39 N. Fourth St., Emmaus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published May 06. 2026 12:13PM St. John\u2019s United Church of Christ in Emmaus celebrated 150 years of faith,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-185564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185564","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=185564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}