Mary, Haven of Grace Old Catholic Church
A Parish Church in the Old Catholic Diocese of Mary-by-the-Haven
Opening Date: August 2nd, 2026
Mary, Haven of Grace is a welcoming and inclusive parish in the European Old Catholic tradition. We invite you to join us in celebrating the mysteries of faith, the Eucharist, and the Lord’s mercy in community. All are welcome, regardless of gender, orientation, denomination, or creed.
Service Times (Spring-Fall)
We welcome you to join us for any of the scheduled services below. For services marked “by appointment,” please contact the parish clergy to make arrangements.
Holy Mass
Sunday — 10 AM Spanish; 4 PM English
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday — 6:30 PM English
Wednesday — 7:00 PM Latin
Friday — 8:00 PM English
Saturday — 12 PM Spanish; 3 PM Vigil Mass at Slate Belt Rehab, English.
Confession
Half an hour before each Mass.
Wednesday — starting at 6:00 PM.
Friday — after Rosary Walk until Mass.
By appointment.
By Appointment
Anointing of the Sick, Last Rites, house visits, baptism, marriage, confirmation, and funeral Masses.
If you are unable to attend Mass but wish Holy Communion to be brought to you once or regularly, please contact us so that arrangements can be made.
Winter Changes
During winter, Friday Mass is held at 5:30 PM. Friday Confession is available after the Rosary Walk until 5:30 PM.
The Sacraments
We invite any Christian believers who accept the Sacraments to receive them here regardless of denomination or creed. Holy Eucharist is available to anyone who discerns or accepts the reality of the True Presence within it, that it becomes the true Body and Blood of Christ during the celebration of Mass.
Holy Eucharist
Having celebrated the feast of the paschal lamb with his disciples, that the figure might give way to the reality, the shadow to the substance, "Jesus took bread, and giving thanks to God, blessed and brake, and gave to his disciples, and said, take ye and eat: This is my body, which shall be delivered for you: this do for the commemoration of me: and taking the chalice also after he had supped, he said, this chalice is the New Testament in my blood: this do, as often as you shall drink it in commemoration of me." - Catechism of Trent, pg. 146.
Baptism
Baptism may be accurately and appropriately deemed: "The Sacrament of regeneration by water in the word." By nature, we are born from Adam, children of wrath; but by baptism we are regenerated in Christ, children of mercy; for, " He gave power to men to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name, who are born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. - Catechism of Trent, pg. 114.
Confirmation
Confirmation, although said by Melchiades to have a most intimate connexion with baptism, is yet an entirely different Sacrament...by the grace of baptism we are begotten to newness of life...by that of confirmation grow to full maturity, " Hence, Pope Melchiades marks the difference between them with minute accuracy in these terms: " In baptism," says he, " the Christian is enlisted into the service, in confirmation he is equipped for battle; at the baptismal font the Holy Ghost imparts the plenitude of innocence, in confirmation the perfection of grace... - Catechism of Trent, pg. 138-9.
Penance/Confession
" I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, whatever sins you loose on earth, shall be loosed, also, in heaven." ... The words that compose the form are: " I ABSOLVE THEE," as may be inferred not only from these words of the Redeemer: " Whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven;" but also from the same doctrine of Jesus Christ, as recorded by the Apostles. - Catechism of Trent, pg. 180-1.
Holy Matrimony
The first reason of its institution is because nature instinctively tends to such a union; and under the vicissitudes of life and the infirmities of old age, this union is a source of mutual assistance and support. Another is the desire of family, not so much, however, with a view to leave after us heirs to inherit our property and fortune, as to bring up children in the true faith and in the service of God. - Catechism of Trent, pg. 180-1.
Old Catholicism recognizes and celebrates marriages for LGBTQ+ couples.
Annointing of the Sick/Extreme Unction
Extreme Unction was instituted as a remedy not only for the diseases of the soul, but also for those of the body: this can apply to the sick only, and therefore, this Sacrament is to be administered to those only, whose malady is such as to excite apprehensions of approaching dissolution. - Catechism of Trent, pg. 208.
Holy Orders
Priests and bishops are, as it were, the interpreters and heralds of God, commissioned in his name to teach mankind the law of God, and the precepts of a Christian life they are the representatives of God upon earth...The power of consecrating and offering the body and blood of our Lord and of remitting sin, with which the priesthood of the New Law is invested, is such as cannot be comprehended by the human mind, still less is it equalled by, or assimilated to, any thing on earth. - Catechism of Trent, pg. 180-1.
Contact Us or the Diocesan Vocations Director regarding any interest in Holy Orders.
Staff Directory
Mary, Haven of Grace is a welcoming and inclusive parish in the European Old Catholic tradition. We invite you to join us in celebrating the mysteries of faith, the Eucharist, and the Lord’s mercy in community. All are welcome, regardless of gender, orientation, denomination, or creed.
Parish-Priest
Father Kevin Gembarski
Position: Parish Priest
Alma Mater: Katholieke Universitiet Leuven & St. Charles Seminary.
Ministry Dates: 2025-Present.
Other Assignment: Nursing Homes, Home Visits, Monroe Correctional Services.
Contact: [email protected]
Clergy-Associate
Rt. Rev. Arthur Conquest III
Position: Episcopal Auxiliary.
Alma Mater: Agape Seminary, East Stroudsburg University.
Ministry Dates: 2002-Present.
Other Assignment:
Contact:
Our Bishop
Rt. Rev. Bernadette M. Meck
Contact Details
Need a priest, Mass, confession, anointing, baptism, spiritual direction, or pastoral care? Contact us at 610-428-0403 or using the form below!
Events & Groups
Below are a listing of some of our common events and groups outside the Sacraments. Find more details on the Parish Calendar or Brochure!
Rosary Walk
Join us for our weekly Rosary Walk around Roseto Park, Fridays at 6 PM.
Faith & Fortitude
Join us for an evening of tabletop, communion, and fellowship. Turn off the screen and spend an evening exercising your imagination and collaboration. Great opportunity for parents and kids to spend quality time together with others in the community! Date TBA.
Philosophy Parlour
Join us for an evening meeting where we study and delve into Scripture, works of Catholic Philosophy, Morality, and other matters of Faith with a nice cup of tea or glass of wine! Date TBA.
Faith is a Queer Thing Support & Advocacy Group
Members of the Christian LGBTQ+ community, supporters, and those open to accepting and welcoming dialogue are welcomed to join us for an evening of queer theology, philosophy, and support for the hardships our community can sometimes endure.
Brothers & Sisters of Kind Fortune
Join members of the parish and community in engaging in meal-prep and distribution, to be made available to families and persons in the community suffering from food scarcity without question.
What is 'Old Catholicism' and what does it mean?
Mary, Haven of Grace is a community in the Old Catholic Tradition. This means we are not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown, and are not in full communion with them.
What is Old Catholicism?
Old Catholicism is not a new religion, nor a rejection of Catholic faith. At its heart, Old Catholicism is Catholicism as received through the undivided Church, nourished by the Fathers, the medieval Western tradition, the sacramental priesthood, the Holy Eucharist, and the apostolic succession of bishops. It is a Catholicism rooted in continuity, not reinvention - It is an expression of Western Catholic Christianity that seeks to preserve the ancient sacramental, liturgical, and episcopal life of the Church without surrendering it to modern centralization or reduction. Many first encounter Old Catholicism through the controversies surrounding the First Vatican Council. That history matters, but we are part of an older group of Old Catholics which preceded the Vatican Council disputes, one centered in the Cathedral-Church of Utrecht. For us, Old Catholicism is not a reaction against a council, a pope, or a particular Roman decree. It is a way of living the Catholic tradition with depth, freedom, reverence, and spiritual seriousness. It is a way of reviving the diverse beauty of our faith as once expressed in unique ways by communities throughout the world.
Catholic, But Not Roman.
Old Catholics are Catholics who hold principled and well-founded hesitancies against the current policies of the Roman Church. We retain the episcopacy, the sacraments, the Mass, the priesthood, devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints, and the spiritual inheritance of the Western Church. We do not understand the Church as a loose association of believers, nor as a purely invisible fellowship. The Church is visible, sacramental, apostolic, and historical. She is not something each generation invents for itself, She is a received tradition.At the same time, we do not believe that Catholicity is exhausted by blind obedience to the Pope. Rome has a real and venerable place in the history of the Church. The See of Peter cannot simply be treated as irrelevant. But the fullness of Catholic life is older and deeper than the administrative habits of any one ecclesiastical court.
The Papacy and the Old Catholic View
Our position is not anti-papal. In fact, it is precisely because the papacy matters that we take its history and theology seriously. The Bishop of Rome has a true primacy in the Church. The papacy is not merely an honorary office, nor a political accident. It belongs to the providential structure of Western Catholic Christianity and has served, at its best, as a sign of unity, doctrinal guardianship, and appeal beyond local corruption or faction.But primacy is not the same as absolute domination. The papal office exists to serve the Catholic faith, not to replace it. For that reason, our approach is neither Gallican in the shallow political sense, nor Febronian in the sense of reducing the papacy to a mere administrative convenience. We do not wish to make the Pope into a decorative chairman of bishops. Rather, we hold that the papacy must be understood according to the older Catholic balance: real primacy, real episcopal authority, real Tradition, and real limits.Some Old Catholics speak of Rome simply as something left behind. We do not. Our view is closer to saying that the papal office remains real, but that its ordinary exercise has become gravely wounded. When the office is used to harden cruelty, enforce spiritual narrowness, or bind the faithful to policies contrary to the breadth of Catholic charity, then something has gone wrong not with Peter’s office itself, but with the manner in which that office is being occupied and exercised.We pray for the restoration of the Church’s visible unity. We honor what is holy in the Roman tradition. We recognize the saints, sacraments, and spiritual treasures that remain there. But we also refuse the idea that fidelity to Catholicism requires surrendering conscience, charity, and the older breadth of the Church to every modern Roman disciplinary posture. The Church is not made more Catholic by becoming more fearful, more rigid, or more suspicious of wounded people seeking grace.
Older Than the Controversies
The Old Catholic spirit reaches deeper than nineteenth-century arguments. It looks back to the older Western Church, especially the Dutch Church of the Classical and Early Medieval Eras, where bishops were not merely branch managers of a central bureaucracy, where local churches and their liturgical, doctrinal, and expressed differences possessed real life and dignity, and where the Catholic faith was carried through liturgy, sacrament, beauty, learning, and pastoral care. This older Catholicism was not perfect. No age of the Church has been perfect. But it possessed a spiritual and philosophical depth often flattened by modern ecclesiastical culture. It knew that the Church is not only a rule-making institution. She is a sacramental world, a school of holiness, a bearer of memory, and a place where heaven touches earth. That is the Old Catholicism we seek to preserve: not nostalgia, not antiquarianism, but continuity. The point is not to imitate the past as a museum piece. The point is to receive what is living from the past and allow it to breathe again.
Tradition With Charity
We are traditional in worship because worship is not entertainment. The Mass is not a lecture, performance, or community meeting. It is the Holy Sacrifice, the offering of Christ, and the place where the Church is most fully herself. We are progressive in pastoral charity because grace is not the private property of the respectable. The sacraments are not trophies for the flawless. They are medicine for the wounded, strength for the weak, and communion for those whom Christ calls to his table. For us, tradition and charity are not enemies. A Church that preserves beautiful liturgy while crushing the bruised reed has misunderstood tradition. A Church that speaks of welcome while forgetting sacrament, doctrine, and holiness has misunderstood charity. The Catholic way is deeper than either error.
What We Offer
We offer Catholic worship, Catholic sacraments, Catholic pastoral care, and Catholic spiritual life in the Old Catholic tradition. That means reverent Mass, access to confession and anointing, devotion to the saints, care for the sick and dying, prayer for the departed, and a serious commitment to the apostolic faith. It also means that those who have been wounded, excluded, ignored, or treated as problems to be managed are not treated as intruders here. We do not claim to be perfect. We do not claim to solve every theological wound in the modern Church. But we do claim that Catholic tradition is larger, older, and more merciful than many have been taught to believe. Old Catholicism, at its best, is the attempt to live that truth.
Charitable Giving & Aid
Mary, Haven of Grace is sustained by the generosity of the community. To preserve the sacredness of the Mass, no collection is taken during services. Instead, a collection box is available near the church entrance for those who wish to give. Donations of food, meals, supplies, or other practical assistance are also gratefully welcomed. Your generosity helps our parish serve the faithful, care for those in need, and grow in its mission.
Ways to Give
In Person - A collection box is available near the church entrance. Checks can be made to 'Mary, Haven of Grace' or 'Mary, Haven of Grace Old Catholic Church.'
Donations in Kind - Food, meals, supplies, and practical aid are welcome.
Online Giving - Coming soon.
Mary, Haven of Grace Old Catholic Church
Mary, Haven of Grace is a welcoming and inclusive parish in the European Old Catholic tradition. We invite you to join us in celebrating the mysteries of faith, the Eucharist, and the Lord’s mercy in community. All are welcome, regardless of gender, orientation, denomination, or creed.
Mary, Haven of Grace Old Catholic Church
Mary, Haven of Grace is a welcoming and inclusive parish in the European Old Catholic tradition. We invite you to join us in celebrating the mysteries of faith, the Eucharist, and the Lord’s mercy in community. All are welcome, regardless of gender, orientation, denomination, or creed.