Cornwall United Methodist Church sits at 50 Freeman Drive in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, just outside the village of Cornwall, with its mailing address in the historic Cornwall post office box. The congregation traces to 1793 and still gathers in a stone sanctuary completed in 1878 by an architect who had also drawn Philadelphia's City Hall. Two Sunday morning services, three weekly women's Bible studies, a youth program that fills the lower level on Sunday evenings, a prayer team on call throughout the week, and a deep bench of children's, men's, and senior ministries make Cornwall UMC one of the more active congregations in the greater Lebanon area.
Two Sunday Morning Services
Cornwall United Methodist Church holds two distinct Sunday morning services.
The 8:00 a.m. service takes place in the chapel. It is described on the congregation's own materials as relaxed and informal, traditional in style, led from the piano, and built around meaningful hymns, prayers, and praise.
At 10:30 a.m. the congregation moves to the sanctuary for a fuller service. Inspiring organ music, congregational hymns, praise and worship songs, and liturgy shape the hour. The adult choir, a worship team, and other special music enrich the gathering. Worship is described as approaching God with awe and reverence while keeping a central focus on Jesus Christ.
Both services are livestreamed on the Cornwall United Methodist Church YouTube channel, and bulletins are posted online each week for anyone following from home.
Sunday School for All Ages
Between the two services, from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m., a full slate of Sunday school classes meets on the lower level.
Adult Sunday school is offered every Sunday morning in that hour. The program is rooted in Scripture and Christian tradition while leaving room for honest questions. Lessons typically touch on discipleship, prayer, forgiveness, and community life, and the open discussion draws newcomers, longtime members, and seasoned Bible students into the same room.
Youth Sunday school gathers middle and high school students in the same hour, working through interactive lessons that ask questions about how Scripture connects to daily life.
Children's Sunday school classes meet during the 10:30 a.m. service hour, in age-appropriate groupings on the lower level.
Children and Family Ministries
Cornwall UMC's Children and Family Ministries are coordinated by Amanda Hollich, the Director of Children's Ministries. Programming for the youngest members of the church runs from infants through fifth grade.
A staffed nursery for infants and toddlers up through age three is open every Sunday from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. in rooms #104 and #106 inside the original building's preschool area. It is also made available during select special services throughout the year so that parents can attend funerals, Christmas services, and similar occasions without arranging separate care.
Kids' Worship is offered for children ages five through fifth grade during the 10:30 a.m. service on the second through fifth Sundays of the month. Children are dismissed after the children's sermon and gather downstairs with Amanda Hollich and a volunteer teacher. On first Sundays, children remain with their families in the sanctuary for Holy Communion.
The Sunday morning program is rounded out by a one-time First Communion workshop offered to second graders and older, together with their parents. The interactive session covers the symbolism of the bread and cup, the meaning of remembrance, and the connection between communion and the life of the church.
Outside the church walls, the congregation partners with Bible2School Cornwall Lebanon. With parental permission under federal released-time law, third and fourth graders from Cornwall Elementary School come to the church building for one hour each week during the school day to hear about Jesus through songs, Bible stories, lessons, activities, and prayer. The church also sponsors both Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops that meet weekly in its facilities.
Each summer, families are pointed toward Gretna Glen Church Camp, a Christ-centered overnight camp where children and youth spend a week in worship, outdoor activities, and small-group faith formation. The congregation holds an annual "Noisy Sunday" offering of loose coins to fund camp scholarships through the church.
Student Ministry: Seek, Grow, Be Strong, Share
Cornwall UMC's Student Ministry is built on four verbs. The ministry's published purpose is to help students Seek Christ, Grow In Christ, Be Strong in Christ, Share Christ.
Sunday mornings include a youth Sunday school class from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. The class focuses on Bible reading, thoughtful questions, and discussion that connects Scripture to teenage life.
Sunday evenings are devoted to Youth Fellowship, meeting from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the lower-level youth room. The gathering combines games, activities, shared meals, meaningful worship, and teaching from God's Word. Mission trips and retreats give the group a chance to serve beyond Lebanon, with high school students undertaking a summer mission trip alongside adult volunteers and middle schoolers taking on a shorter trip of their own.
A Confirmation Class prepares students in grades seven through twelve for church membership and a deeper walk with Christ. Participants explore their personal faith, the foundations of Christian belief, and what it means to follow Jesus, working through study, discussion, and mentorship before making a public profession of faith. The class is overseen by Jon Simpson, the Director of Youth Ministries.
Three Women's Bible Studies
Three ongoing women's Bible studies meet each week at different times so that working women, retirees, and stay-at-home mothers can all find a fit.
The Monday afternoon group meets from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. in Room #56 on the lower level. The Wednesday morning group meets from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. in Room #57, also on the lower level. Both daytime studies welcome newcomers even when they cannot attend every week and require no read-ahead homework.
An evening study takes place on Tuesday nights from 6:45 to 8:15 p.m., currently working its way through the Gospel of John.
For single women in the congregation, the Honey Bees is a social ministry that gathers every other month for an outing. Planned stops around the region include Hilltop Cafe at the Lebanon Vo-Tech, Colebrook Tavern, the Mount Gretna Hideaway, DoGood's Tavern, and Lazarro's Italian Bistro, with the church bus available to those who want a ride.
Men's Fellowship on Sunday Evenings
The Men's Group meets on Sunday evenings from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. in Room #57 on the lower level. The current group numbers about a dozen men, ranging in age from 25 to 75, and takes turns sharing food while working through Bible study, prayer, and open discussion.
Topics center on faith, family, leadership, integrity, forgiveness, perseverance, marriages, mentoring youth, and serving the wider community. Conversation is honest and accountable, with men encouraging one another to apply biblical principles in everyday life. The Men's Group is the kind of fellowship where participants read Scripture together, ask hard questions, and leave encouraged to lead at home, at work, and in the church.
The XYZ Fellowship and the Honey Bees
Senior adults at Cornwall UMC find their own corner through the XYZ Fellowship, the church's shorthand for Xtra Years Of Zest. The fellowship is open to anyone 60 or older, with "less zesty" spouses welcome as well.
XYZ holds three or four seasonal events each year, including a spring luncheon or dinner honoring church family members in their eighties and beyond, a summer outing to a local play, concert, museum, lecture, or community program, a fall themed picnic, and a fall or winter holiday gathering. The fellowship also runs a Card Ministry through which donated greeting cards are passed along to people in the congregation or at Cornwall Manor for birthdays, get-well wishes, sympathy notes, and thinking-of-you messages.
A separate outreach relationship exists with Cornwall Manor, the retirement community next door to the church. XYZ members serve as "Caring Friends" and in other volunteer roles at the Manor in coordination with the Manor's volunteer coordinator.
The Honey Bees, the single women's ministry described above, complements XYZ by creating smaller social outings for a specific slice of the senior adult population.
Young Adult Fellowship
Cornwall UMC maintains a Young Adult Ministry for everyone from high school graduates through age 30, including college students and young professionals.
Programming folds together Bible studies, small groups, service projects, and social gatherings. Recent and ongoing activities include a Second Sunday Summer Concert Series with food trucks and local performers, a Black Friday college care package cookie bake, a holiday dinner outing to the Hershey Bistro paired with a visit to the Christmas lights at Stone Gables, and an annual holiday brunch and planning meeting. The group also keeps a running eye on a possible day trip and on outings tied to larger United Methodist events.
The Praying Hands Ministry
Prayer is woven through every service and made available throughout the week through Cornwall UMC's Praying Hands Ministry.
A prayer team lifts up concerns by phone during the week. Anyone can join the team or request prayer by contacting the church office. Members of the prayer team are added to a one-call voice messaging system so that worshipers who travel can still hear the current prayer concerns by phone.
The congregation prays together during both Sunday services. Prayer is treated as a community practice that includes intercession, praise, lament, meditation, corporate prayer, praying the Scriptures, and prayer woven through daily life. The Praying Hands team surrounds church leaders, ministry volunteers, mission participants, and individuals with specific needs, and regularly seeks discernment for the wider congregation and community.
Music at Cornwall UMC
Music is a longstanding strength of the congregation. The 10:30 a.m. sanctuary service is built around organ-led hymns, liturgy, and congregational praise and worship songs, supported by an adult choir and a worship team. The 8:00 a.m. chapel service uses piano and congregational singing in a simpler setting.
Mike Brimmer serves as Music Director and Tara Zimmerman as Church Organist. Harrison Schappell leads the contemporary worship component as Contemporary Worship Leader. Special music is a regular feature of the sanctuary service, and the church's musical tradition stretches back to 1879, when the pipe organ was installed at the rear of the sanctuary by Miss Anne and Robert Coleman, descendants of the family that gave the congregation its first land.
Missions and Outreach
Missions and outreach are designed around a "Missions of the Month" cycle, in which a different cause is highlighted throughout the year. The annual event calendar gives a window into that rhythm.
Each February the church hosts Souper Supper, a community-wide fellowship meal. In May, Youth and Graduate Recognition Sunday lifts up graduating high school seniors and college students. Election Days bring community-wide soup and bake sales. June includes the XYZ Fellowship picnic and a Heart & Hand mission trip to West Virginia. July features Vacation Bible School. The Peach Festival in August is a community fundraiser. A School Prayer Walk and Blessing of the Backpacks mark the return to school in August.
September brings Welcome Back Sunday and a church-wide picnic. October centers on Fall Fun Fest, World Communion Sunday, and Heritage Sunday. November keeps All Saints Sunday, a Thanksgiving Eve service, and Bible Sunday. December closes the year with Caroling, Cookies, and Cocoa, a Christmas Cantata, the Children's Pageant, and Christmas Eve Candlelight Services.
Outside the annual calendar, the church takes part in local mission efforts through its youth mission trips and its partnerships with organizations such as Bible2School, Cornwall Manor, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, and Gretna Glen Camp. An online donation portal through Vanco supports both general operations and monthly mission designations, with QR codes posted throughout the building for quick giving.
A Building Worth Tracing
The stone building that houses Cornwall UMC today is the congregation's third home, and it carries more than 140 years of continuous use.
The first record of a Methodist congregation in Cornwall dates to 1793. In 1828 Mrs. Thomas Burd Coleman organized the first Sunday school in what was then the Old Mill House. After her death in 1830, her husband gave one acre of ground to the Methodist Episcopal Church for the first permanent building, a plain brick structure measuring thirty-five by forty feet.
The brick church was enlarged into a two-story building in 1868 to keep up with the growing congregation. In 1877, the Coleman heirs offered to build a larger church if the people could contribute what they could. The cornerstone was laid for the present stone structure, planned by the architect who designed Philadelphia's City Hall. Glass for the large Rose Window at the rear of the sanctuary was imported from Europe.
The new church was completed and dedicated in 1878. That same year the congregation applied for a resident pastor in place of the itinerant preachers who had served it, and a frame parsonage was built next to the current garage. By 1896 the entire church interior had been frescoed and the pipe organ had been moved to the front of the sanctuary. The 1926 installation of the bell in the eighty-four-foot tower preserved a relic of the old Burd Coleman Furnace, where the same bell had once summoned workers.
Major renovations and additions followed over the twentieth century: chancel renovations and stained-glass windows above the altar between 1937 and 1941, basement remodeling and a new kitchen in 1949, and a substantial 1998 addition that brought new offices, classrooms, a fellowship hall, a kitchen, and an elevator to the campus. The mortgage on the 1998 addition was paid off in just ten years, and a mortgage burning ceremony was held in October 2008.
Several smaller architectural artifacts carry the history forward. A stained-glass window of a miner on the second level of the addition was done by local artist Frank Weidman. The light fixture in the upstairs foyer outside the elevator was originally hung on the first floor of the bell tower, outside what is now the Heritage Room. Wall art in the chapel and in the kindergarten classroom was done by Lorena McCleary, a church member and local artist. A memorial garden and gazebo were dedicated in the cemetery in 2018, replacing a small brick building that once housed the gas compressor that lit the original church.
Statement of Faith
Cornwall United Methodist Church's Statement of Faith was approved by congregational vote on February 18, 2024. It gives the clearest single picture of how this church understands the Christian life.
The statement affirms belief in the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with the Bible as the inspired Word of God given for instruction in our lives. Jesus is confessed as fully God and fully man, the only Son of God, whose crucifixion, death, burial, and physical resurrection accomplished reconciliation between God and humanity. The Holy Spirit is honored as one with the Father and the Son, sent to lead people to Christ, guide them in truth, and empower holy living.
The statement holds that God loves all people without exception, that sin separates human beings from a holy God, and that God has reconciled the world to himself through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Those who repent and put their trust in Christ are brought back into a relationship with God and set free from the consequences and power of sin. Eternal life is a present hope for those who trust in Christ, while those who reject Christ experience eternal separation from God.
It also affirms God's plan for marriage and family. Every person was created male or female, and marriage is described as a covenant before God between one man and one woman, intended for companionship, intimacy, and family, mirroring God's covenant relationship with his people.
Members of the congregation are called to make disciples, taking the Great Commission of Matthew 28 as a charge to share the Good News from their local community to the ends of the earth. The statement closes with an acknowledgment that the church must remain humbly open to correction as it grows in grace and faith toward deeper spiritual maturity.
Rooted in the Wesleyan Tradition
The Statement of Faith is read in the light of Cornwall UMC's Wesleyan heritage. Cornwall United Methodist Church identifies deliberately with the Wesleyan interpretation of the Bible as the inspired Word of God.
Three streams of grace run through the church's teaching. Prevenient grace is the grace that goes before us, awakening conscience and stirring desire for God. Justifying grace is the pardoning love of God in Jesus Christ, the moment when trust in Christ is born or renewed and we discover we are forgiven and adopted into God's family. Sanctifying grace is the continuing work of the Spirit, shaping believers into the likeness of Christ across a lifetime.
The church also leans on the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience, as a way of reading Christian faith in the modern world. Scripture is primary, but Methodist theology takes tradition, reason, and lived Christian experience seriously as aids to interpretation. Worship at Cornwall UMC is shaped by John Wesley's conviction that the church gathers weekly to meet the risen Christ through the reading of Scripture, the preaching of the Word, robust congregational singing, and frequent celebration of Holy Communion.
Two sacraments are recognized. Baptism marks entrance into the covenant of grace, and Holy Communion is celebrated as an open table. Communion is offered to all who seek Christ, a living symbol of the inclusivity at the heart of the congregation.
Cornwall UMC emphasizes small groups and "class meetings" as the backbone of discipleship, alongside works of piety (prayer, Scripture reading, worship, fellowship) and works of mercy (feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, comforting the lonely, working for justice). John Wesley's famous summary of social holiness, that there is no holiness but social holiness, is honored through local partnerships in Lebanon County that support families in crisis, food drives, outreach to those battling addiction, and service to neighbors in need.
The Cornwall congregation is connected, like every United Methodist church, to a broader network of districts, conferences, and the global denomination, sharing in cooperative giving and shared ministry beyond its own walls.
Pastors, Staff, and Lay Leadership
The church is served by Pastor Deanna Geiter. Pastor Deanna grew up in Lancaster County, plays the piano, organ, and violin, and performs with the Hershey Symphony Orchestra. Her previous work in ministry included serving as Music and Youth Director at Wesley United Methodist Church in Strasburg. The sacraments of Holy Communion and Baptism are central to her sense of call. She and her husband Robert live with their cats.
Jon Simpson serves as Director of Youth Ministries and Amanda Hollich as Director of Children's Ministries. Harrison Schappell is the Contemporary Worship Leader, Mike Brimmer is Music Director, and Tara Zimmerman is the Church Organist. Jennifer Trexler serves as Church Secretary.
Lay leadership at Cornwall UMC is organized through the standard United Methodist structure of committees. The Administrative Board oversees the congregation's ministry between charge conferences; the Nominations and Leadership Development Committee helps members identify their calls and gifts; the Finance Committee, Board of Trustees, Staff-Parish Relations Committee, and Council on Ministries each carry specific responsibilities set out in the Book of Discipline. Trustees conduct an annual accessibility audit to remove barriers that impede full participation. A treasurer, financial secretary, and lay leader round out the leadership team, along with a lay member elected to the annual conference.
The church office is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to noon, reachable at 717-272-0148 or cornwallumc@comcast.net. Visitors, newcomers, and anyone curious about what Cornwall United Methodist Church is like are welcome to stop by, attend a service, or join a class.