The Church with Time for You
Sewickley United Methodist Church sits on the corner of Broad and Thorn streets in the village of Sewickley, Pennsylvania, a stately historic building with stained glass windows, a 1909 Carnegie pipe organ, and an air-conditioned sanctuary that seats around four hundred. Locally known by its initials SUMC, the congregation has long been nicknamed "The Church with Time for You," a phrase that captures both its unhurried hospitality and its packed calendar of music, mission, and fellowship. Two Sunday morning worship services, a thriving preschool, a beloved pumpkin patch that takes over the front lawn every October, and a year-round slate of children's, youth, and outreach ministries all unfold within walking distance of the Sewickley Valley's small-town streets.
The church has historically been known as "The Church with Time for You." As the congregation writes, "It is always the right time to love God with all of our hearts, and with all of our souls, and with all of our minds, and our neighbors as ourselves." Two Sunday morning services lead the week: a contemporary service at 9:00 am and a traditional service at 11:00 am, with adult Growth Groups and Sunday School meeting between them at 10:00 am. Worship is also livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook.
Two Sunday Mornings at 337 Broad Street
SUMC offers two very different Sunday worship experiences that share the same pastor and the same historic sanctuary.
The 9:00 am contemporary service is led by the Leap of Faith band and is built around the idea that worship can be both joyful and informal. The service draws on songs led by guitar, bass, drums, keys, saxophone, and violin, along with prayer and preaching. Children are part of the contemporary morning, too, and the service has grown and changed since it was first launched.
At 10:00 am the hallways fill with adults heading to Growth Groups and Sunday School classes that meet between services. Walking with Jesus meets in the church parlor with coffee and conversation. Christ is Counting on You gathers in the church library for daily devotions, scripture, and prayer. A Tuesday evening Growth Group has studied books ranging from Amy Jill Levine's The Difficult Words of Jesus to Richard Rohr's The Universal Christ.
The 11:00 am traditional service continues many of the practices that longtime worshippers treasure. Robed acolytes light and extinguish the candles. The pastor and liturgist process from the doors of the church to the altar to mark the start of the hour. Hymns and sacred music fill the sanctuary from the pipe organ and Chancel Choir, with a brief children's moment in the middle of the service reserved just for them. The printed bulletin still has its place, while just a touch of technology has been added to enhance the experience.
Holy Communion is shared on the first Sunday of every month. Bread and wine (actually grape juice) are offered, and a gluten-free option is available for those who need it. Anyone is welcome to receive, whether or not they are a member of the church.
Children are cared for from the start of the morning through the end. Qualified childcare is offered from 9:00 am to noon for infants through age three in the nursery. Supervised Children's Church is available during both services for children ages four to twelve, with an entertaining and religious video or activity. Both services also include a children's moment so that kids can stay connected to worship as a family.
The Sanctuary Organ and the Leap of Faith Band
Music has always been a centerpiece of life at SUMC, and the church runs two distinct programs under one roof. The Music Minister, Erik Kolodziej, a musician and educator who has served in music ministry for more than twenty-five years and taught elementary music at Edgeworth for nearly two decades, leads the traditional program. He coordinates the Chancel Choir, the Clocktower Ringers adult handbell choir, and the music for weddings and special events. The Carnegie pipe organ that anchors the sanctuary is dated to 1909 and remains the heart of the traditional service.
The contemporary service is led by Kelly Herman, the Contemporary Worship Coordinator, and her band, Leap of Faith. The contemporary service began in 2009 at the encouragement of the minister of music, a handful of members, the band, and the pastor. What started as a fairly calm early 2000s-style contemporary worship has evolved into an uplifting, joyous start to the Sunday. In its seventeen years, the service has enhanced its sound and continues to look for new ways to bring the good news of Jesus to worship through song, prayer, and action.
Leap of Faith includes Jack Moffett on drums and vocals, Richard Fairlie on bass, acoustic guitar, drums, and vocals, Johnathan Burnett on electric and acoustic guitar, bass, drums, keys, and vocals, Scott Spencer on electric and acoustic guitar, drums, and vocals, Genevieve Moffett, Joe Boward on saxophone, Mark Wiggins on violin, Pam Mayo on keys, and Hurst Bartley on acoustic guitar, keys, and vocals. Bartley has led the worship team since the contemporary service began. The band released its debut record, "The River Rises," in 2024 and released a follow-up shortly after. Members of the band also play at concerts beyond the church walls, including shows at Faith UP Church in Washington, Pennsylvania, and at the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference.
Younger musicians have a place in the program as well. The Children's Bell Ministry has two groups: the Rainbow Ringers for preschoolers and beginners, who learn the basics by reading colored circles, and the Junior Clocktower Ringers for older children who are ready to read sheet music and play as a group. Both groups meet on Sunday mornings during the education hour. The Chancel Choir, the Clocktower Ringers, the Junior Clocktower Ringers, and visiting ensembles such as the Three Rivers Ringers and the Academy String Quartet all appear in the BROADcast concert series the church hosts in its sanctuary.
The Historic Building on the Corner of Broad and Thorn
The SUMC sanctuary is the centerpiece of a beautiful, historic, and classically appointed building. Stained glass windows line the walls, the 1909 Carnegie pipe organ rises behind the chancel, and the air-conditioned room can seat about four hundred people for worship or for a wedding. The center aisle runs about seventy-five feet, with eleven rows of pews on each side. Two seven-candle brass candelabra flank the altar, and a brass holder for a unity candle stands ready. Two doors at the front of the church, an accessible ramp from the parking lot, and a parlor for dressing and family photographs all make the building well suited for wedding days.
Weddings are a long-standing part of SUMC's life. The pastor performs all weddings at the church and meets with each couple for three counseling sessions before the date is set. The Music Minister coordinates the music, and live music from the organ and grand piano is required. Receptions can be held in the Simpson Room, the church's social hall, and catering is available. The building also holds the Patton Library, classrooms for Sunday School, a nursery, and the basement classrooms that, for a few weeks each October, transform into a haunted house.
The church has thirteen numbered doors in all, though only three are unlocked on a typical Sunday: Door #2, the front door on Broad Street; Door #6, up the accessible ramp from the parking lot; and Door #11, the large side doors on Thorn Street. Street parking is free on Sundays along Broad and Thorn, and the parking lot off Thorn has accessible spaces and a ramp to the sanctuary.
From the Nursery to Confirmation: Children, Youth, and VBS
SUMC takes the formation of its youngest members seriously. The nursery is staffed by qualified caregivers for infants through age three from 9:00 am to noon every Sunday. Children's Church, a separate program for ages four through twelve, meets during both worship services from September through May, with two adults always present in keeping with the church's Safe Sanctuary policy. Children plant flowers around the church grounds together each spring and gather for an Easter egg hunt between services on Easter Sunday.
The Children's Bell Ministry offers two entry points. Rainbow Ringers welcomes preschoolers and up to learn the basics of ringing, including holding the instrument, playing only when directed, and the difference between loud and soft, with notes shown as colored circles. Junior Clocktower Ringers is for children ready to read notes, rhythms, and dynamic markings and play as part of an ensemble. Both groups meet in the basement across from the Children's Church room, and the ministry is led by Grace Rogansky.
Older children and youth find a home in the Fellowship of the Cross, a service group that has been a fixture of SUMC for years. FOTC runs the congregation's annual Operation Christmas Child campaign, now in its sixteenth year, collecting toothbrushes, school supplies, and small stuffed animals to fill shoe boxes that have reached places as far away as Thailand. FOTC also sells Ornaments 4 Orphans before the holidays, raises money through Candygrams and Valentine candygrams, supports a student in Zimbabwe through the Nyadire Connection, collects plastic grocery bags that are turned into sleeping mats for people experiencing homelessness, gathers coloring books and crayons for children at Heritage Valley Sewickley, and runs an Easter egg hunt every year.
Vacation Bible School is a community effort. SUMC hosts the program jointly with St. Matthew's AME Zion Church and St. Paul's Lutheran Church under a different theme each summer. Recent years have brought the Garden Project, an interactive evening program for preschoolers through eighth graders that runs in the late summer before school starts, with music, art, science, recreation, and snacks for every participant. The summer program is free and open to everyone, regardless of church or school district.
Middle and high school youth meet as a Youth Group during the program year for fellowship, friendship, and faith formation. A Young Adult Group gathers every other week, sometimes at Queen Beans Cafe, the Carnegie Coffee Company, or in the Simpson Room, for Bible study and conversation.
The Pumpkin Patch, the Haunted House, and the Cookie Walk
Three signature events fill the SUMC calendar year after year and have helped shape the congregation's identity in the Sewickley community.
Every October the front lawn at Broad and Thorn becomes a rolling sea of orange. Roughly three thousand pumpkins arrive by tractor-trailer from the Navajo reservation in New Mexico, where Pumpkins USA partners with the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry. Volunteers form a pumpkin brigade, passing the gourds one-by-one from the truck to rows of wooden pallets on the lawn. Once the patch opens, it runs seven days a week from 10:00 am until dusk, and it is the congregation's biggest annual fundraiser, averaging more than thirteen thousand dollars in profit on fifteen thousand dollars in total sales. The patch began in 2002 as a youth group fundraiser called TGIF, later grew into a church-wide effort, and now draws on volunteers from Robert Morris University, the Quaker Valley Key Club, and many church families. Wedding parties have been known to stop by for photos. As the longtime Pumpkin Queen Lou Ann Scott likes to say, "It's an act of faith."
Every October, the basement is haunted too. The SUMC Haunted House was resurrected in 2006 by one of the church's social groups and has been scaring the Sewickley area ever since. Volunteers transform the lower level into twelve to fourteen themed rooms, complete with props, sound effects, lighting, and actors, and open on the two weekends leading up to Halloween. The event is recommended for ages ten and up and uses strobe lights and latex. Six hundred or more guests have toured in recent years, and participants range from age seven to ninety-seven. The church offers a tongue-in-cheek explanation of how a haunted house in a church fits with Christian faith: "We make fun of them and ridicule them. Our haunted house is not reality, but foolish fun."
Every November, the Simpson Room fills with the smell of thousands of home-baked cookies for the Annual Cookie Walk. Started in 2006, the event lines up twenty tables of fudge, peanut brittle, ladylocks, sugar cutouts, gingerbread men, pizzelles, Belgian waffle cookies, tassie cups, Hershey Kiss cookies, snickerdoodles, chocolate chip, oatmeal, shortbread, ginger cookies, M&M's, lemon bars, pecan drops, molasses icebox, lemon crackles, haystacks, no-bakes, saltine pretzel bars, brownies, thumbprints, pinwheels, and many more. Customers fill a pie box for a set price, with ingredients listed for every batch.
Other signature events include Light Up Night, when SUMC joins Sewickley's village-wide Christmas kickoff on the first Friday in December with a live nativity, performances by Leap of Faith and the Chancel Choir, free hot chocolate and cookies on the lawn, and Santa's phone booth for the children. The annual Church Picnic, hosted by the Patton Library, brings the congregation together with their siblings from AME Zion Church at Shelter #3 along Little Sewickley Creek, with hotdogs, hamburgers, chicken wings, and games for kids and adults alike.
Fellowship of the Cross and the Wider World
Mission is woven into nearly every part of SUMC's life. The church supports the United Methodist Committee on Relief, joining other United Methodist congregations on UMCOR Sunday each year, and hosts benefit concerts for causes such as Ukraine relief. The Sewickley Community Food Pantry receives regular collections from the congregation, with monthly wish lists shared in the announcements. A Home Goods Community Closet supports individuals and families in the community through donated cleaning products and other household items. Fellowship of the Cross oversees Operation Christmas Child, Ornaments 4 Orphans, Candygrams, and the sleeping-mat project for people experiencing homelessness.
The congregation has also stepped into civic life. Pastor Hannah has preached and marched at community rallies in Sewickley and Pittsburgh, including the Sewickley Pride Festival, the No Kings Sewickley Rally, and a July 3rd protest at the Pittsburgh ICE Field Office on the eve of the country's 250th anniversary. The Sewickley Singing Resistance group, made up of SUMC musicians and friends, brings a message of inclusion and solidarity to public events.
Learning Tree Preschool at SUMC
Tucked into the lower level of the church, Learning Tree Preschool has been part of SUMC since 1980, when a core group of women from the congregation formed a board of directors and opened a non-denominational preschool in the church basement. Today it is a non-profit ministry of SUMC that welcomes children from any background, with parents staying connected through the Bloomz app.
The three-year-old program meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm and focuses on socialization, motor skills, and early concepts like colors, shapes, and following directions. The four-year-old program meets Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9:00 am to 1:30 pm and adds structure, longer activities, and Kindergarten readiness skills in language, reading readiness, math, self-care, and social and emotional growth. The day includes centers, circle time, daily lessons, snack, table time, show and tell, outside play, specials such as Stretch-n-Grow, music, nature, and library visits, and a lunch followed by free play.
Patton Library, Growth Groups, and Lifelong Learning
The Patton Library, named after a generous gift from former member Franklin Patton, is a warm, inviting space dedicated to learning, reflection, and community. Its shelves carry social justice, LGBTQ+, women and faith, men and faith, Christian living and devotional materials, fiction, nonfiction, and children's literature. On Remote Work Fridays the library is open as a workspace with free Wi-Fi and comfortable seating, and through the year the Library Committee hosts author readings, storytime, book discussions, an adult spelling bee, and a recognition of every third grader in the congregation with their own Bible.
Adult formation at SUMC goes far beyond the Sunday School hour. The Men's Ministry, sometimes called Men Together, meets at the back patio of a member's home and later gathers in the church library. The Tuesday Women, a long-running fellowship and study group, meets every Tuesday morning in the church library and gathers for brunches, outings, and seasonal events. A Spanish Class hosted by SUMC brings salsa dancing nights, movie nights, and Hispanic Heritage Month events to the church, including a passport-style tour of ten countries. A Crochet and Knitting Group makes cotton sacks filled with soap for people in shelters. The Sunshine Girls, a smaller women's group, meets for outings in the warmer months.
Welcoming and Affirming: Mission, Vision, and Core Values
SUMC's public welcome statement is unmistakable. The church celebrates God's gift of diversity and welcomes and affirms people of every gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, as well as every age, race, ethnicity, physical and mental ability, level of education, family structure, economic, immigration, marital, and social status. The congregation's motto is "Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors."
The church's stated mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Its vision is to be present with the community as a welcoming and growing church, living out the radical love of Jesus. The congregation describes its inspiration as a belief in the sanctity of Scripture as the inspired word of God, revealed through the life of Jesus Christ and interpreted through the Holy Spirit, who is active and still speaking within the world today.
Three core values shape the life of the church. Community means being bound together by God's love and engaging all with empathy, compassion, dignity, and respect. Inclusion means believing in the sacred worth of all people without exception and welcoming, wanting, and valuing all persons regardless of age, race, ethnic and religious background, gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation or expression, immigration status, neurodiversity, and ability. Faith in Action means pursuing peace and justice for those who experience exclusion, lack of resources, systemic injustice, or targeted harm by giving time, talents, and resources.
A new Neurodiversity Support Ministry reflects those values in practice. The team has begun providing sensory kits in the sanctuary area, has curated a collection of relevant books in the Patton Library, and has hosted workshops with experts from the Watson Institute on autism awareness. The Nurture Committee welcomes everyone, the children's ministries follow Safe Sanctuary policies, and the church is committed to creating safe spaces for all people to worship and grow.
Planning a Visit to SUMC
Visitors are warmly welcomed at SUMC. Sunday mornings begin at 9:00 am with the contemporary service in the sanctuary, followed by Sunday School and Adult Growth Groups at 10:00 am, and the traditional service at 11:00 am. The nursery is open from 9:00 am to noon for infants through age three. Children's Church is available during both worship services for ages four to twelve. Holy Communion is offered on the first Sunday of every month, with gluten-free bread available.
Free Sunday parking is available along Broad and Thorn streets. Handicap parking spaces and an accessible ramp to the sanctuary are located in the parking lot off Thorn Street. On Sunday mornings, visitors are invited to enter through Door #2 (the main front door on Broad Street), Door #6 (up the ramp from the parking lot), or Door #11 (the large side doors on Thorn Street). A communication card and prayer request card are available in each pew, and a red note pad at the end of each pew lets visitors sign their name so the church can connect with them after the service.
The church office is open Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. Giving is available online. Recorded services, sermon teasers, announcements, newsletters, and updates from the Leadership Board are all available online, along with the church's many ministries and serving opportunities.
Meet the Pastor and Staff
Pastor Hannah Loughman grew up in Western Pennsylvania, earned her B.A. from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and received her Master of Divinity from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Before entering parish ministry she worked as a Therapeutic Staff Support in homes for children with autism and in a private school setting with students on the spectrum. Her appointments include Creekside UMC, Uniontown and Bowdertown UMC in the Indiana District, Homewood UMC on the Butler District, Houston and Bridgeville UMCs in the Washington District, and most recently Butler First UMC. She also served as Director of Christian Education at Smithfield UCC and served on the WPAUMC Way Forward task force. She has a passion for addiction recovery, small group life, creating safe spaces for all people to worship and grow, and engaging the community. She and her husband Todd have three children, and the family enjoys traveling, hiking, and community festivals.
Erik Kolodziej serves as Music Minister, coordinating music for the traditional service, weddings, concerts, and the Chancel Choir. He began his journey with the Spiritan Campus Ministry at Duquesne University and continues there today, after previously serving as Worship Leader at Franklin Park Baptist Church. He plays piano, organ, trumpet, and sings, and he lives in North Fayette Township with his husband Chad and their two Labradors, Texas and Georgia.
Mandy Williams is the Coordinator of Christian Education, working to create welcoming spaces for everyone to learn and grow together. Originally from Manheim, Pennsylvania, she holds a master's degree in social work and lives in Sewickley with her husband Chris and daughters Addie and Ellen.
Kelly Herman is the Contemporary Worship Coordinator and a vocalist with Leap of Faith. The office staff includes Elizabeth Powell, who serves as the church administrator and assists visitors.
SUMC also benefits from many named and unnamed ministry leaders, including Grace Rogansky, who directs the Children's Bell Ministry and has helped lead the Junior Bells, Mother's Day Dancers, and Christmas Pageant; Sandra Lane, who leads the Building and Maintenance Ministry and writes the library's Between the Pages column; and Andrea Lewis, who coordinates Children's Church volunteers. The Leadership Board, chaired by Jenine Furry, guides the administrative life of the congregation and posts regular updates online.
Weddings at SUMC are open to non-members as well as members. The Music Minister coordinates the music, the pipe organ and grand piano are both available, and the sanctuary can seat about four hundred guests. Receptions can be held in the Simpson Room. Couples meet with the pastor for three counseling sessions before the wedding is scheduled on the church calendar.
From the Pumpkin Patch to the pipe organ, from the Junior Bells to the Fellowship of the Cross, Sewickley United Methodist Church is a community that has time for you, whatever your season of life or wherever you are on your faith journey.