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.
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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.
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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
​I remember sitting in a Church History class and being fascinated how the Christian church morphed, formed, and reformed, down through the ages. After Jesus’ death and as the disciples taught His ways, there was one “church.” As of 2024 there were 45,000 Christian denominations! Fortunately, our little church’s history is not quite so complex. There are quite a number of new folks among us and so it seems timely to recount just a bit of our history as Salem Community Church. On January 1, 2017, we were brought forth into existence, a brand-new expression of ministry and mission born from the historical parentage of 3 founding churches: Centenary Hamlin UMC, Grace Maplewood UMC, and Hollisterville UMC. In the forming of Salem Community Church, those 3 congregations ceased to exist, choosing to live together as brothers and sisters in Christ in a new way. As we all have experienced, when we start something new it means we have to say goodbye to something that has been. If the 3 churches were to become 1, two of them had to say goodbye to their buildings, leaving the comfort of familiarity, immediacy of history, and dearly held hopes that resided within those walls. Maplewood UMC and Hollisterville UMC folks did just that. Former Centenary Hamlin UMC members had the blessing of being able to continue to worship where their history had happened but had to say goodbye to their identity as Centenary. These 3 congregations died in order for a new body of Christ to be born in Salem Community Church. While each of the founding churches no longer exist, their combined history informs us of who we are today. For going on 9 years, we have been Salem Community Church. Time marches on. It seems important that our history--both as Salem and as the 3 founding congregations, is not lost. To that end, it would be of value to have a Church Historian, a person who would record in one place the history of Hollisterville, Maplewood, and Centenary for posterity, and begin to write the history of who we are together now as Salem. If you are interested in such a role, please be in touch with me. Since the birth of Salem, over the years we have grown in membership and attendance. I also trust that we’ve continued to grow in the grace and love of Jesus Christ. We have a vibrant Children’s Sunday School, a budding Youth Fellowship, and in 2025 we offered a Confirmation Class and Vacation Bible School. We also have about 20 adults involved in adult Bible Study. Where might we go from here? God only knows, and more to the point, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31. Faithfully we will move forward into the future together. May God richly bless you today and always. Pastor Jane