Towson United Methodist Church is a large United Methodist church located in the historic Hampton subdivision of Towson, a suburb of Baltimore County, Maryland. The eighty-seven members of the church had to borrow heavily to build their new sanctuary, and the chairman of the construction committee had to advance his personal funds to complete the construction. This led to years of litigation with the church. In 1861, on the eve of the American Civil War, Towson United Methodist Church was a divided congregation in a border state of divided loyalties.
However, it was during the post-World War II era of the 1950s that they were able to build their church, a time of reconciliation and rapid growth for major Protestant denominations, especially in more prosperous suburbs. The Towson United Methodist Church is an L-shaped structure with its main sanctuary on a north-south axis. In 1968, it adopted its current name to reflect the merger that year of the United Brethren Methodist and Evangelical denominations in the United States. With the goal of increasing its appeal to the larger Towson community, it now calls itself Towson Church and offers Sunday worship services that combine traditional and contemporary elements.
While ministering at Union Chapel United Methodist Church in Joppa, Maryland, Miller continued his graduate studies and received his doctorate in ecclesiastical revitalization at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago in 1992. After reunification of the two branches of Methodism in 1939, First Methodist Church and Second Methodist Church of Towson continued as separate entities for another thirteen years. The Methodist movement grew rapidly in the United States before the Civil War but was plagued by disputes over slave ownership and domination by bishops, leading to a formal division into two groups in 1844. The northern-leaning Methodist Episcopal Congregation continued to worship at Epsom Chapel during the Civil War and began building its own church nearby with a cornerstone laid on August 14, 1869. With reunification of ME and MP denominations in 1939, Towson's Methodist Episcopal and The Methodist Protestant Churches were later known as First Methodist Church and Second Methodist Church respectively. While both congregations had stayed apart since 1861 split, they came together in 1895 to celebrate a great revival in Towson.
Led by Methodist Episcopal Minister Daniel Helpler, Epsom Chapel was inaugurated for Towsontown's first public church service on Sunday November 10 1839. The Towson United Methodist Church has a 3-manual 48-range Casavant pipe organ with 2,790 tubes including seven 16-foot rows. If you are looking for its address, you can find it on MapQuest: 501 Hampton Ln Towson, MD 21286. You can also create an account or sign in to include a message to the church, save your church visits and receive personalized recommendations.
