About Our Church
Who We Are
Salem Community Church is open to everyone who wishes to develop a closer relationship with God.
Our worship style is informal but we take God seriously. We believe it is our responsibility to live out the good news of God’s love through prayer, Bible study, corporate worship and involvement in our community in ways that help people know that God cares for them and we do, too.
Our goal, expressed in our brand statement, is to connect people with God and one another.
YOU are invited to join with us in making Salem and our community a better place.
Rev. Jane McCarthy
Rev. Jane McCarthy, Pastor of Congregational Life
The Rev. Jane McCarthy is an ordained minister in The United Methodist Church. On July 1, 2023, Pastor Jane was appointed as Pastor of Congregational Life at Salem Community Church in Hamlin. In this role, she leads worship, preaches, reaches out to members and friends of the congregation, and leads a regularly occurring adult study currently focused on the Bible book of Exodus.
Pastor of Administration Jeffrey L. Rarich
The Rev. Dr. Jeffrey L. Rarich is the Pastor of Administration at the Salem Community Church, a United Methodist Congregation in Hamlin, PA.
During the 1980s and 1990s, he pastored other United Methodist Churches in Pennsylvania. He is a retired Elder in the Susquehanna Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Before coming to Salem, he served with several charitable organizations, including as Director of Planned Giving for The Salvation Army from Ohio to Maine, Executive Director of a United Methodist Foundation serving New York and Western Connecticut and Director of Planned Giving for the Guideposts Foundation.
​
He earned a Ph.D in Christian Ethics from Drew University in Madison, NJ and has taught Philosophy and Applied Ethics at Lacakawanna College, Lake Region Center.
​
He holds a certification in planned giving from the National Planned Giving Institute and earned the Certified Financial Planner® practitioner standing from the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards. He has taught personal and local church finances and stewardship to pastors throughout the region.
He and his wife, Suzanne, reside in Tafton, Pennsylvania.
OUR HISTORY
​Formed on January 1, 2017, by the merger of the Centenary Hamlin, Grace Maplewood, and Hollisterville United Methodist Churches, Salem Community Church continues their proud heritage of offering Christ to our community for over 200 years.
​
The combined congregation reached back into its history to select its name: Salem Community Church (A United Methodist Congregation), when Methodist ministry began to expand in this area in the mid-1800s, these congregations were all served by the same pastor. This coming together is a reunion of the current generation in a place their ancestors called Salem, a word which in the Bible tradition means ‘Peace.’
Salem seeks to be a place of peace where people can meet in fellowship and worship, find their souls renewed, and go out to serve God and their neighbors in tangible ways.