About Our History

Even in this post-denominational era, we may become enriched and inspired knowing the heritage of our congregation, which is steeped in the beginnings of American Methodism. Tradition has it that Robert Strawbridge, the first Methodist preacher on the continent, included our town in his itinerary during the 1760s, and we know that Francis Asbury, the foremost circuit rider in Colonial times, preached at Westminster during one of his first visits to Maryland. In 1812, a group of men and women gathered at the Union Meeting House and organized what is now Westminster United Methodist Church. The old meetinghouse site is located today by an urn just inside the entrance to the city cemetery, a private company whose board of managers still includes a representative from our congregation.

Our earliest roll dates back to 1816 and among the 14 members were Francis Hollingsworth (first editor of Asbury’s Journal) and his sister, Ann Willis (she and her late husband, the Rev. Henry Willis, had welcomed Asbury into their home during his several visits to the area). By 1828 some of us remained Episcopal Methodists, while others were Protestant Methodists, who embraced not only “a country without a king but [also] a church without a bishop.” Despite the division, Westminster Methodists continued to worship together at the Union Meeting House until the end of the next decade when they built their first churches on Main Street.

In the late 1860s Methodist Protestants provided leadership for the establishment of Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College) and built a grand new sanctuary (now Lamb Awards and Engraving Co.). In 1882, they opened Westminster Theological Seminary adjacent to the college campus. The seminary relocated in 1958 to Washington, D.C. and was renamed Wesley Theological Seminary.

Not to be outdone by its kindred congregation, Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church erected a commodious new building in 1869 at the location where we now stand. Nearly a hundred years later, the expansion and remodeling of this church created a modern-styled sanctuary including chancel woodwork by noted Japanese-American woodworker and architect, George Nakashima.

In recent years our congregation has committed to remain a downtown church and to serve the community where God planted us nearly 200 years ago.