9/4 4:05 PM Old Zion Reformed Church. Allentown, PA We arrived at the Church and found a parking space right across the street from the Church- one that we could later pull out of without backing up. Three people came from the Church to welcome us and brought us into the Church for a look at the Liberty Bell Shrine. Very red, while and blue and there in the corner was a very large bell with a crack painted on it. The beauty of the replica is that it isn’t really cracked and when rung, it sounds really good. Compared to my little bell, it’s very mellow and doesn’t cause pain when rung. We got a tour of the sanctuary above the shrine as well and invited to ring the Church bell.

The Church’s bell is, of course, in the belfry or somewhere really high so the way to ring it is to pull on a rope hanging down from the ceiling. When I first pulled on the rope, there was some slack in it and I was nervous because of a warning that if the rope is slack when you pull on it that you’d better get out of the way. They said that was a joke and to go ahead and pull hard- so I did. If you watch the video you can what happens. What you can’t hear is that finally after all that was over, you could hear a tiny, muted little bong.

It was all very exciting. They gave us T-shirts and postcards and were so nice. Anyone passing anywhere near Allentown, PA should go to this Church. The sanctuary is beautiful. There is an organ there that looks like it would rattle the walls and shake the windows. The pastor and the guys who work at the shrine couldn’t be nicer or more friendly. And you can actually ring this huge (over one ton) bell that sounds like the Liberty Bell could have sounded.