“Voices of the Past: An Early Autumn Afternoon Cemetery Walking Tour,” led by historian Joshua Arthur Fink, will be held on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at Jerusalem Western Salisbury Church, 3441 Devonshire Road, Allentown.

The walk will begin in the historic 1819 Sanctuary of the church and then proceed out onto the Old and New Cemeteries. Participants will be divided into groups and will proceed on the tour with a tour guide to five different grave sites, where they will learn about the people of the past through first person interpreters or “actors.”

Participants will meet the following persons and hear their stories: a son returning to pay his respects to his grandfather and parents, a woman recalling the Revolutionary War and the effect on the home front, a grieving Civil War widow, a mother remembering the deaths of her daughter and niece, and a local chocolatier.

The program will be held rain or shine and last approximately and hour and a half; after the tour on the cemeteries, the tour will return to the Sanctuary for a question and answer period and will end with refreshments and fellowship time in the Tilghman K. Kline Memorial Chapel, behind the Sanctuary.

Please wear comfortable shoes and appropriate clothing for the weather.

Donations will be accepted benefiting the History Committee.

The first log church was built in 1741 atop the hill along the “Little Lehigh Creek.” A second church was erected in 1769. The cornerstone for the current church building was laid in 1819, with the building being dedicated in 1820. Renovations were completed in the sanctuary in 1884.

Originally a Union Church of the German Lutheran and Reformed settlers in the area, today the church continues as a “Shared Ministry” of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ congregations.

The church is celebrating its 285th Anniversary in 2026 with a series of special events.

For more information about the church or the other events during the year, visit the church’s website, www.jwsunionchurch.org or find them on Facebook at “Jerusalem Western Salisbury Church.”