I recently visited Heidelberg UCC in downtown York for the installation of the new conference minister of Penn Central Conference. This church is right in the center of a lot of downtown activity. It is across the street from the central market and very close to York’s most popular restaurant. This location gives me the impression that this church has a lot of opportunity to reach out to the non-churched community in York and a blue banner hanging in front filled with diverse adjectives gives the impression that this is genuinely a church who would welcome anyone in from the cold.
Heidelberg has an auditorium area where the stage features a “Be the church” sign surrounded by items that remind us of Christmas gifts and a sign that says “It’s okay to have too much fun.” The building as a whole seems more “lived in” than most churches I have spent time in (largely suburban), where everything seems to perfectly placed that it may be hard to feel comfortable or at home. This all leads me to believe that this is truly a welcoming and loving congregation. It seems to me that its congregation would be comfortable together, but also courageous enough to challenge one another towards genuinely living their faith, as evidenced by the “be the church” sign.
The inside of the sanctuary speaks largely to a German Reformed tradition. It has beautiful stained glass (filled with white Jesus & friends) that reaches up to the ceiling and the front of the church is adorned with gold. The choir loft and organist’s bench are largely set away from the congregation. All of this certainly adds to the “high church” feel of the place. However, there is also a pulpit that stands level with the congregation and the first few rows of pews have been replaced with chairs so that the sanctuary is able to be used more effectively. These last two observations indicate an effort to pull the congregation and provide worship that is friendly to laypeople.
The bulletin for this particular service makes it difficult to look at the church since it was constructed by conference staff.
