Arnolia and ACTC are proud to support the Towson Church Assistance Center, which provides aid to disadvantaged families in our community. Towson United Methodist Church is a large United Methodist church located in the historic Hampton neighborhood of Towson, a suburb of Baltimore County, Maryland. Its history is closely intertwined with the political and social developments of the United States since the 19th century. In 1861, on the brink of the American Civil War, it was a divided congregation in a state with divided loyalties.
The church was eventually built in the 1950s, a time of reconciliation and rapid growth for major Protestant denominations, especially in the more affluent suburbs. The Child Care Board's support is an important, rewarding and much appreciated outreach program at Providence United Methodist Church. Led by Methodist Episcopal Minister Daniel Helpler, Epsom Chapel was inaugurated and opened for Towson's first public church service on Sunday, November 10, 1839. The chairman of the church's construction committee had expected to use his own funds to complete the construction, but was later embroiled in years of litigation with the church. With the merger of the Methodist Episcopal (ME) and Methodist Protestant (MP) denominations in 1939 in the United States, the Methodist Episcopal and Methodist Protestant churches in Towson were renamed First Methodist Church and Second Methodist Church respectively. Towson United Methodist Church has a 3-manual, 48-range 2,790-tube Casavant pipe organ, including seven 16-foot rows. He was ordained into ministry by the United Methodist Church in 1995 after studying at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado where he earned a Master of Divinity and Doctorate in Ministry.
However, the eighty-seven members of the United Methodist Church soon ran into financial difficulties as they borrowed heavily to build their new sanctuary. In April 1952, more than ninety years after the two churches separated, both congregations voted in favor of reunification and merged on June 1, 1952 under the name Towson Methodist Church. Ransom was senior minister of First Methodist Church of Towson at the time of merger of two churches in 1952 and later prime minister of Towson United Methodist Church during its construction and first decade. With an aim to increase its appeal to a wider Towson community, the church now calls itself Towson Church with a Sunday worship service that combines traditional and contemporary elements. The faction that favored giving ecclesiastical authority to a hierarchy of bishops called itself the Methodist Episcopal Church and took an anti-slavery stance in the North. As Civil War loomed over America in 1850s, local Methodists in Towson continued to worship together at Epsom Chapel.
The Methodist movement had grown rapidly before Civil War but was plagued by disputes over slave ownership and domination of church by bishops leading to formal division into two groups in 1844. Although two Methodist congregations had remained apart since 1861 division, both came together in 1895 for major revival in Towson. The Towson United Methodist Church has an outreach program that provides aid to disadvantaged families in our community. This program is supported by Arnolia and ACTC and is an important part of their mission to serve those who are less fortunate. The church also offers a Sunday worship service that combines traditional and contemporary elements to appeal to a wider audience.
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