Our Free Little Library.
At Calvary, our mission is to: “Come in Faith, Go with Peace, and Live God’s Love”.
We invite you to come in faith that we are all welcome into God’s presence and all invited to share God’s free grace. We seek to create worship, education and service opportunities to give us a new perspective on life – to go with God’s peace and live fully as God intends. In all that we do and say, we seek to do so in love. Everything we do should be directed to the outcome of living God’s love with friends and strangers alike wherever we are.
Calvary Moravian Church is a member of the international Protestant denomination popularly called the Moravian Church. For almost six centuries the Moravian Church has proclaimed the gospel in all parts of the world, ministering to the needs of people wherever they are. For over 75 years Calvary has been a west Allentown neighborhood church, dedicated to living God’s love. Our worship, practices and faith centers around relationship between God and our brothers and sisters, seeking to serve and love where we can.
As part of the worldwide Moravian church, we experience God in relationships with each other and keeping love as the center of our faith experience. We often quote this motto: In essentials, Unity, In non-essentials, Liberty, and above all things, Love!
Who are the Moravians? Click here for a deeper history of the 550+ years of the Moravian Church.
“According to an 15th c. Moravian leader, Gregory, what makes a Christian is not doctrine or what he or she believes, but what he or she lives out according to the teachings of Jesus Christ.”
(Rican,History of the Unity)
Education:
Bible Study: All are welcome, Tuesday mornings at 10 a.m. (now held on Zoom). Contact us for more information.
Sunday school: As we change our worship time to 10 a.m., we will be looking at a change in Sunday school this fall.
We offer an adult Sunday school downstairs in fellowship hall led by Jeff Diehl. We also offer two classes for children; younger children (ages 3 – 3rd grade) with Pastor Janel and other volunteers in the nursery (first floor) and in our loft attic space, our older youth (4th grade and up) with Jessica Jenkins.
Community Service and Mission:
- We serve on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of the month at the Lehigh Conference of Churches’ Soup Kitchen. All are welcome.
- Partner and Member of the Lehigh Conference of Churches
- Sixth St. Shelter volunteers. We regularly plan on trips to clean and restock apartments at the Sixth St. Shelter for homeless families in Allentown.
- Reading Room: One of our missions is to help more children develop and maintain a love of reading by making sure that they have books in their homes. We collect gently used and new books, sort and distribute them to local kids in a variety of ways (local fairs, reading and giveaways at local schools, etc. ).
- Partners with our local elementary school, Muhlenberg Elementary as we help with collections and other forms of assistances.
- Free Little Library on Livingston; with books for all ages, give a book or take a book!
We also routinely collect various things to help different parts of our community such as :
–Angel Tree Ministries (Salvation Army’s Christmas present drive)
-Allentown Ecumenical Food Bank
–Esperanza Ministries of Bethlehem (we collect Mac and Cheese cups for their children’s outreach feeding program)
- Toiletries and other cold-weather items for the Lehigh Conference of Churches’ programs.
There’s lots of ways our members and friends serve within our church as helpers for various church functions, board members, scripture readers, teachers, and other areas.
Fellowship:
We enjoy opportunities for fellowship and our community with outside seasonal gatherings and live music, as well as Lenten dinner and programs, Dining with Friends (a monthly dining out group) and other occasions.
Church Staff:
Pastor Janel Rice
Pastor Janel has served at Calvary since September 2015. Previous to serving here, she was on a pastoral team at Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem for 10 years. Her passions included pastoral care, social justice, worship leadership and education. Pastor Janel also serves as the board chair for the Lehigh Conference of Churches. She is married to Dr. Christian Rice, professor at Ursinus College and they have a daughter.
Secretary: Kathleen Jenkins
Organist: Anne Ettinger
We are governed by a Board of Elders and a Board of Trustees:
President of Trustees: David Venditta
Trustees: Charles Jenkins, Kim Kametz, Alex Karol, Rich Pirone, Elissa Waldron Larry Weik (ex-officio, David Pieringer, treasurer).
Vice-President of Elders: Rick Cabrey. (Our Pastor chairs the board of Elders) .
Elders: Rick Cabrey, Gary Gipson, Tammy Karol, Bob Syvret, Mary Venditta, Deana Zosky,
Calvary Moravian Church 