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First Presbyterian Church (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania)

Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaChurches completed in 1957Infobox religious building with unknown affiliationPresbyterian churches in PennsylvaniaPresbyterian megachurches in the United States
Religious organizations established in 1875

The First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was established in 1875, and the present building on Center Street was completed in 1957. The Church had 2,609 members as of June 2015 but the Presbyterian Church, like every mainline Protestant denomination, has suffered a decline in national membership, especially over the past decade.In 2016, the elected leadership (the session) voted to break away from the national denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA) or PC (USA) to join a new conservative body, the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians or ECO. Points of contention between the two bodies hinge on acceptance of same sex issues by the national church, their involvement in social justice issues such as gun violence and the Israel–Palestine conflict, and ECO's belief in Biblical literalism. During the past year, a group of members, Presbyterians for Unity, desiring to remain within the Presbyterian Church (USA), were against the split and had attempted dialog with the church leadership to attempt some form of reconciliation. Two polls were initially taken, the first was an official vote under established Presbyterian church law and the second was an unofficial straw vote to determine the wishes of as many church members as possible. Both of these votes indicated that there was insufficient percentage of members required to allow an amicable separation under established Church law. Church law does not recognize straw polls. A third vote was taken by followers of ECO under State law as an independent corporation of the State of Pennsylvania. Case law in Pennsylvania in the past has not permitted a Church to be divided under corporate law and this is the basis of one lawsuit. Recent similar court rulings nationally have taken similar positions. Since July 2016, both religious groups comply with a court order to hold separate services within the church property.There are three separate legal actions, presently, in Northampton County court attempting to resolve the issues of money, property, and official use of the name, the "First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem". The three day trial ended August 30, 2017.[1] On December 12, the court ruled that the church and all of its assets were legally held in trust by the Lehigh Presbytery for the PC(USA) congregation. A little more than a month later, the leadership of the ECO congregation announced that it would not appeal the court's ruling.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article First Presbyterian Church (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

First Presbyterian Church (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania)
Center Street, Bethlehem

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N 40.645 ° E -75.374 °
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First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem

Center Street
18017 Bethlehem
Pennsylvania, United States
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Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Bethlehem is a city in Northampton and Lehigh Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bethlehem had a total population of 75,781. Among its total population as of 2020, 55,639 were in Northampton County and 19,343 were in Lehigh County. It is the eighth-most populous city in the state. The city is located along the Lehigh River, a 109-mile-long (175 km) tributary of the Delaware River. Bethlehem lies in the geographic center of the Lehigh Valley, a metropolitan region of 731 sq mi (1,890 km2) with a population of 861,899 people as of the 2020 census that is Pennsylvania's third-most populous metropolitan area and the 68th-most populated metropolitan area in the U.S. Smaller than Allentown but larger than Easton, Bethlehem is the Lehigh Valley's second-most populous city. Bethlehem borders Allentown to its west and is 48 miles (77 km) north of Philadelphia and 72 miles (116 km) west of New York City. There are four sections to the city: central Bethlehem, the south side, the east side, and the west side. Each of these sections blossomed at different times in the city's development and each contains areas recognized under the National Register of Historic Places. Norfolk Southern Railway's Lehigh Line, formerly the main line of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, runs through Bethlehem heading east to Easton and across the Delaware River to Phillipsburg, New Jersey. The Norfolk Southern Railway's Reading Line runs through Bethlehem and west to Allentown and Reading. Bethlehem has a long historical relationship with the celebration of Christmas. The city was christened as Bethlehem on Christmas Eve 1741 by Nicolaus Zinzendorf, a Moravian bishop. In 1747, Bethlehem was the first U.S. city to feature a decorated Christmas tree. On December 7, 1937, at a grand ceremony during the Great Depression, the city adopted the nickname Christmas City USA in a large ceremony. It is one of several Lehigh Valley locations, including Egypt, Emmaus, Jordan Creek, and Nazareth, whose names were inspired by locations in the Bible.