{"id":234542,"date":"2026-07-03T09:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T09:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/234542\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T09:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T09:25:09","slug":"lancaster-city-congregations-plan-bell-ringings-open-houses-and-declaration-reading-for-america250-local-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/234542\/","title":{"rendered":"Lancaster city congregations plan bell ringings, open houses and Declaration reading for America250 | Local News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nine Lancaster city houses of worship are collaborating on open houses, bell ringings and a reading of the Declaration of Independence at Penn Square as part of the America250 celebrations.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what you need to know about the events.<\/p>\n<p>Bell ringings<\/p>\n<p>Several Lancaster city congregations will ring their bells at noon on Sundays, July 5 and July 12.<\/p>\n<p>Declaration of Independence reading<\/p>\n<p>While the Declaration of Independence was famously signed on July 4, it took several days before Lancaster residents heard it read aloud. The historic reading took place July 8, 1776, in Penn Square \u2013 which was the location of Lancaster\u2019s courthouse at the time. To honor this history during the semiquincentennial, there will be a reading of the Declaration of Independence at Penn Square at noon on July 8. (The individual to do the reading has yet to be confirmed as of press time.)<\/p>\n<p>Open houses<\/p>\n<p>The following houses of worship will host open houses 1-4 p.m. July 12:<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Congregation Shaarai Shomayim, 75 E. James St., Lancaster. (Shaarai Shomayim will also host a special America250-related ceremony in its cemetery July 5. <a href=\"https:\/\/lancasteronline.com\/features\/faith_values\/local-jewish-history-to-be-celebrated-at-shaarai-shomayim-cemetery-america250-event\/article_f23c2405-05fa-46bb-8eba-641c151699fd.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Find more details here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 540 West Walnut St., Lancaster.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Grace Lutheran Church, 517 N. Queen St., Lancaster.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 31 S. Duke St., Lancaster.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 First Presbyterian Church, 140 E. Orange St., Lancaster.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 First Reformed United Church of Christ, 40 E. Orange St., Lancaster.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Lord\u2019s House of Prayer, 133 E. Vine St., Lancaster.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Historic St. Mary\u2019s Catholic Church, 119 S. Prince St., Lancaster.<\/p>\n<p>Note: While Saint James Episcopal Church, 103 N. Duke St., Lancaster, is participating in the bell ringings, the church hosted its open house events in June.<\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"https:\/\/lancasteronline.com\/features\/entertainment\/7-events-in-lancaster-county-this-weekend-from-an-afroman-concert-to-patriotic-events\/article_017820b7-27a7-4fa8-be7e-0712cf03e0e5.html\" class=\"tnt-asset-link\" aria-label=\"7 events in Lancaster County this weekend, from an Afroman concert to patriotic events\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>                &#13;<br \/>\n                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mP8Xw8AAoMBgDTD2qgAAAAASUVORK5CYII=\" alt=\"7 events in Lancaster County this weekend, from an Afroman concert to patriotic events\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full white\" width=\"1763\" height=\"1176\" data- data-\/><br \/>\n                <\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n                Success! 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There was an error processing your request.\n            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nine Lancaster city houses of worship are collaborating on open houses, bell ringings and a reading of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[8120,101246,101247,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-234542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-america250","tag-bell-ringings","tag-declaration-of-independence-readings","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234542","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=234542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}