Feb 16, 2023

Resurrected Life Church Bites Zion and Allentown's Hand

Reverend Gregory Edwards, after securing the iconic Zion Church for one dollar, has turned around and spat on local history. The Liberty Bell Museum rents the front portion of the basement for one dollar a year from the church...That's where the Liberty Bell was hidden during the Revolutionary War. Edwards wants a rent increase to $1000 a month!!!! 

As for the board of the former Zion Church,  they learned that their former good deed has not gone unpunished....not exactly a Christian lesson. The crass decision by the charismatic preacher is not a surprise to everyone,  just to the woke former church board. 

Unless the museum can stay in that historic place where the bell was hidden, it has no meaning. To this blogger, Edward's decision is just another erasure of Allentown's historic mercantile district. I hope the city manages to save the art deco post office at 5th and Hamilton.

Shown above is an old linen postcard of Zion Church. Even the postcard is historic, only requiring a one cent stamp. On the back of the postcard it states...This Church housed the Liberty Bell during the Revolutionary War in order to prevent its capture by the British who wished to convert the metal into bullets. It was brought to this city in a hay wagon by local farmers.

Molovinsky On Allentown is normally posted every weekday of the year. However, the above post appeared early the evening before, because of its important connection to Allentown history.

10 comments:

  1. Great comments Michael. I wish this could be shared outside of the group. Perhaps you could send it to the editor of our wonderful newspaper too. Then that's another story.

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  2. I see a few of the board members are also with 'Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley''. Which seems is turning into quite a cash cow for these folks in my opinion.

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  3. They should have had all of this agreed upon before the sale. Based on experience I can say I would have left nothing to trust in this deal. But note how demagogues are building power off the ignorance of those who should know better.

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  4. If a 99 year lease is in place I don’t see how the new owners can get out of honoring it without the museum agreeing. At the end of the day what pastor Edwards really wants is the museum to stay and for the city or state to subsidize a heafty lease.

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  5. Destroying history one piece at a time, to be replaced by a false narrative I suspect.

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  6. Michael it should be saved,and Pip the Mouse.I have no use for a Minister like that.,nor for fundamentalist church as such.

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  7. So much more then just the Liberty bell museum. Also First Defenders from Civil War - some of the first troops raised came from the Lehigh valley and left for Washington from Allentown. Zion UCC always had a special service close to Lincoln’s birthday

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  8. Edward’s and Promise Neighborhood have found a direct pipeline from the City and Reileytown. They get paid for duties that the city can’t address on their own. It won’t be exposed since there are no investigative reporters, just press releases It’s a shame that the original church congregation had fallen so low. Which one is next?

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  9. If the church had paid fair market value for the church, it would be their right to charge high rent (assuming the existing 99 year lease is not still in effect). However, they were given the church for free, with the understanding that it would be used for a continuation of some of the missions that Zion was providing. In that case, they should only charge the museum the cost of utilities and maintenance.

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