Roland Park Presbyterian Church sits at 4801 Roland Avenue in the tree-lined Roland Park neighborhood of north Baltimore, in a stone sanctuary whose cornerstone was laid in 1902 and whose cross, hung in the chancel during a major renovation in the late 1950s, is encircled by two quiet rings that have come to mean different things to the people who worship beneath it. Founded in 1901 as a small Sunday School mission in the Woman's Club Room of the Roland Park shopping center, the congregation has grown into a progressive, fully affirming member of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and an affiliated congregation of More Light Presbyterians, recognized as an Earth Care Congregation and a Matthew 25 church. Its vision statement, repeated often by Pastor Mark Hanna, captures the life of the place in three phrases: Pursuing Justice, Practicing Hospitality and Engaging Curious Faith in a 21st Century World.
Sunday Mornings at 10:30
Worship gathers in the sanctuary each Sunday at 10:30 AM, and visitors are welcome to come as they are. When they arrive, members of the congregation greet them at the door, hand them a worship bulletin and announcement sheet, and let the bulletins do the rest. As the congregation likes to say, no one is asked to stand before the assembly or to come forward as a visitor. The dress in the pews runs the full range from jeans to suits, and the order of service blends thoughtful preaching, congregational hymnody from the Glory to God hymnal adopted in 2014, prayer, choral music, and a children's moment called the Time for All God's Children.
Worship can be joined in person, watched through a Facebook Live stream on the congregation's Roland Park PC Facebook page, or participated in interactively through Zoom (Meeting ID 343 468 948, available by emailing pastor@rolandparkchurch.org for the password) or by phone at 1-646-558-8656 with the same meeting ID. The same Sunday morning follows the Narrative Lectionary, a chronological path through Scripture that begins each fall in Genesis and moves through the whole arc of the Bible over the course of three years, so that the same stories are being heard by adults in the pews and children in Sunday School at the same time.
The sacrament of the Lord's Supper is celebrated the first Sunday of every month as part of the regular worship service. Communion is open to all whom God calls, members and non-members alike. The congregation shares the bread and cup by intinction: everyone comes forward, takes a piece of bread, dips it in the cup, and receives the elements together. Grape juice is used in place of wine, and gluten-free bread is provided so that all may partake together. Servers also bring the elements to anyone who is not able to come forward.
Baptism is offered at every age. The congregation teaches that God's grace goes before us in our lives, and that infant baptism is a sign and reminder that grace is not dependent on our own worthiness. Baptism is always celebrated in the gathered assembly so that the whole congregation can be reminded of God's love and recommit themselves to live it out in community.
A Hundred and Twenty-Five Years of Sacred Music
Music has been at the center of the church from the very beginning. The first pastor, the Rev. Dr. John Walkup Douglas, was a self-taught pianist and organist who hired a soprano named Mabel Garrison. So many people came on Sundays to hear Garrison sing that her fame spread as far as New York, and within a few months she was engaged by the Metropolitan Opera, where she sang major roles for years. In the years that followed, the choir grew into a paid quartet with a volunteer choir, and the congregation's appetite for serious choral music grew with it.
That appetite is still being fed. The Chancel Choir and its professional soloists are at the heart of the music ministry, leading worship each Sunday and singing anthems that draw from a choral library of more than one thousand works. The repertoire runs from Renaissance motets by Tallis and Palestrina, through Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Fauré, to contemporary composers such as Bob Chilcott, John Rutter, Morten Lauridsen, and Craig Courtney. Choir rehearsals take place on Thursday evenings from the Thursday after Labor Day through the last Thursday of May, and they are described by the choir itself as high-energy evenings that combine the task of learning music with fellowship and prayer.
Dr. Phillip Collister-Murray has directed the music program at RPPC since 1992, leaving for a brief interval and returning in 2001. A professor of voice and opera at Towson University who also heads the opera workshop program there, he holds a doctorate from the University of Maryland, a master's and a postgraduate certificate from Northwestern, and a bachelor's from Marycrest College. He is also an active composer and arranger whose work for the chancel choir includes more than one hundred descants for hymns in the Presbyterian Hymnal and the Glory to God hymnal, the church's Centennial hymn and anthem "Built on a Rock," and anthems such as "Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming," "I Hold You in My Heart," "Think on These Things," and others.
The instruments are equally distinctive. A 26-rank split-chamber Wicks pipe organ, installed in 1959 and modernized with an Allen Renaissance two-manual console and MIDI interface in 2000, anchors the sanctuary. A Boston 6'1" grand piano sits in the chancel, a Steinway 5'6" grand in the assembly hall, and a Baldwin Hamilton studio upright in the choir room. A three-octave set of Malmark handbells and three octaves of Malmark handbell chimes belong to the Chancel Handbell Choir, a twelve-member ensemble that rehearses every other Sunday morning at 8:15 and presents music in worship nearly every month from September through June. Children ages four to thirteen are invited into the Children's Choir, directed by Leah Murphy, a professional music teacher in Baltimore's private schools, which rehearses after worship on selected Sundays and sings in services about six or seven times a year.
Special music Sundays are a long-standing tradition. The Chancel Choir prepares larger choral works for Advent and Christmas, Holy Week and Easter, and Pentecost, often with a chamber orchestra. Other special services through the year have included Vespers, a Service of Light, Ash Wednesday, and Taizé worship, and the sanctuary regularly hosts concerts from visiting ensembles such as Bach in Baltimore, whose opening concert of a recent season featured Dr. Collister-Murray as one of the soloists singing Bach's "Mache dich, mein Herze, rein" from the St. Matthew Passion.
From Twenty-One Believers to a Hundred and Twenty-Five Years
The congregation's story begins on May 8, 1900, when eleven men and ten women met in the home of John T. Hill to discuss forming a Presbyterian church in the then-new Roland Park neighborhood. A committee of five was formed to look into the matter, and seven weeks later a business and social meeting of local Presbyterians was held in the Woman's Club Room on the second floor of the Roland Park shopping center. The committee reported that the room could be rented for morning and evening services at three dollars a Sunday, including the piano, organ, and lights; that a minister could be secured for an annual salary of one thousand dollars; and that a building lot could be obtained at a discount from the Roland Park Company. Plans were drawn up for a building that could be erected for ten to twelve thousand dollars.
On October 4, 1900, the committee concluded arrangements with the Rev. John Walkup Douglas, who began his ministry at Roland Park the first Sunday in November. A Sunday School, then called the Sabbath School, began on October 21, with John T. Hill as its first superintendent, holding separate classes for boys and girls before church. A February 6, 1901, resolution began the petition process to organize the local mission as a church. The Presbytery responded favorably, and on April 10 the congregation decided to proceed with the purchase of a lot on which to erect a stone structure at Roland Avenue and Upland Road. On April 22 the formal fund-raising canvass began. The Circuit Court of Baltimore County granted the church's Articles of Incorporation, signed by twelve men, on May 1, 1901, and on May 30 Dr. Douglas was formally installed.
The cornerstone was laid on July 10, 1902, and the building was dedicated on December 6 of the same year. The original sanctuary was done in auditorium style, with a sloping floor and no central aisle, a central pulpit behind which sat the choir area and the organ console. The first organ was a remarkable water-powered instrument, and old-timers in the neighborhood used to recall floating tiny sailboats out to Roland Avenue as the water flowed out and the organ began to play after Sunday School concluded. The Ladies Guild was organized in 1903 and quickly produced the first of what would become a long-running series of festivals, originally called the Strawberry Festival, later the May Festival, then the Apple Festival, then the Strawberry Festival again, with a Victorian Festival marking the centennial year.
For young people, the early congregation provided steamboat excursions to Tolchester Beach and theatrical fare such as The Mikado, beginning a theatrical tradition that still continues in the church's Thespresbyterian Players, an annual dinner theater that began in 1983. Throughout its life, the church has welcomed Boy Scout, Girl Scout, and Brownie troops, the St. Andrews and St. George's societies, and the charitable fund-raising stage plays of Baltimore's Paint and Powder Club. As the neighborhood grew, the church initiated a congregational supper to encourage members to bring their friends. In 1910, a Thanksgiving service was begun with other Roland Park congregations, an interdenominational tradition that continues today.
Dr. Douglas pastored the church for thirty-eight years, growing the membership from twenty-one to more than five hundred, before his sudden death on January 30, 1939. He was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. John T. Galloway, installed on March 3, 1940, who guided the church through the Second World War, when it joined with other Presbyterian churches in running a Hospitality House canteen on Baltimore Street to serve military personnel. On January 9, 1946, a fire destroyed much of the east end of the church, including Dr. Galloway's library, his study, and the Sunday School classrooms. The damage was restored within a year, and on March 28, 1948, Dr. Galloway resigned to take a call in Pennsylvania.
The Rev. Dr. Donald Craig Kerr became the church's third pastor on December 1, 1948. In November 1954 the congregation purchased a residence at 2 Elmhurst Road, later known as Church House, to host many of the church's functions. A 1958 fire caused extensive damage to Church House while plans for an expansion of the sanctuary and Sunday School facilities were underway. The new sanctuary was rededicated on May 1, 1960, and featured a Wicks two-manual organ, the unique cross with two interlocking rings that now hangs in the chancel, and a stylized burning bush with the divine name "I am that I am" carved in mahogany on the south wall. More than two hundred and ten thousand dollars was raised by subscription to pay for the building, and from that effort also grew the congregation's endowment fund. Dr. Kerr retired in July 1980 after a pastorate of nearly thirty-two years and was elected Pastor Emeritus.
The fourth pastor, the Rev. Dr. Albert W. Bush, Jr., was called in July 1981 and installed on September 27 of that year. He emphasized Sunday School and adult Bible study and revised the administrative structure of the church's boards and committees. In 1982 Dr. Terry Martin-Minnich was appointed to head the Christian education department, beginning what would become a long tenure as associate pastor. After Dr. Bush left in 1987, two interim ministers served the church until the Rev. Dr. Brett Morgan was installed as the fifth pastor in May 1989. Dr. Morgan departed in February 1998 and was followed by the interim ministry of Dr. John Calvin Knox Jackson. The church's sixth pastor, the Rev. Dr. Wayne Boulton, first occupied the pulpit in August 1999 and was formally installed the next October. He was followed by another interim under Dr. Theodore Durr before the Rev. Mark W. Hanna was called in October 2007 as the church's seventh pastor. Pastor Mark began his ministry at RPPC in February 2008 and continues to serve.
Across its lifetime, RPPC has been served by a long line of musicians. Soprano Mabel Garrison left the choir for the Metropolitan Opera in the early years, baritone Eugene Martinet established the Baltimore Opera, and decades later soprano April Haines followed Garrison's path in the 1990s. David Lowe became the church organist and choirmaster during Dr. Kerr's pastorate and initiated the combination of a paid quartet and a volunteer choir. The Chancel Handbell Choir grew from a gift of handbells received for the seventy-fifth anniversary in 1976.
Shared Leadership and the Reformed Tradition
Like every congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA), RPPC is governed by two elected leadership bodies working alongside the pastor. The Session, or Council of Elders, is the governing board. Made up of elders elected by the congregation, the Session makes decisions about vision, staffing, budgeting, worship planning, building usage, maintenance, and improvements. The pastor, the staff, and every program of the church fall under the Session's guidance. The Greek word presbyteros, from which the denomination's name derives, simply means elder and refers to the way the church governs itself: together, with many voices at the table.
The Board of Deacons is the second elected board, with a ministry of hospitality and caring traced back to the earliest Christian community in the Acts of the Apostles. A deacon, in the literal sense of the word, is one who serves another, and the RPPC deacons embody that ministry through visitation, the preparation and serving of meals in times of need, and the warm welcome that greets visitors on Sunday morning.
Faith at RPPC is grounded in the Reformed tradition and best described as faith seeking understanding. Rather than being told what they must believe, members are encouraged to talk about how they experience God and how they make sense of the world. The congregation holds that faith is not about certainty of belief so much as the capacity to place trust in a loving God even in the midst of an uncertain world. The language used throughout the church to describe this commitment is the phrase Engaging Curious Faith, and it runs through the church's name for its adult education hour, its blog, and the questions that follow each sermon transcript in the form of a sermon discussion guide.
RPPC is fully affirming of LGBTQIA+ people in every aspect of church life, including membership, leadership, marriage, and ministry. The congregation is affiliated with More Light Presbyterians, a network of Presbyterians working for the full inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people in the life of the church, and has been recognized by the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s Mission Agency as a Matthew 25 congregation committed to dismantling structural racism. It has also been designated an Earth Care Congregation for its commitment to creation care.
Faith Formation Across the Lifespan
Christian education at RPPC is built around the same Narrative Lectionary followed in worship, so that the same Scripture lessons are being explored in every classroom on Sunday morning. The Education for All Ages hour runs from 9:00 to 10:00 AM, with classes for nursery age, primary age (kindergarten through second grade), elementary age (third through fifth grade), middle school, upper school, and an adult education forum that meets most Sundays at 9 AM, taking a break on the first Sunday of each month.
The children's curriculum is written specifically for the congregation by an experienced educator and pastor, with developmentally appropriate lessons for each age that engage the story through story, music, activity, and service. Throughout the year there are additional offerings, including occasional lunch-and-learn spiritual formation speaker events for all ages, the Bridge to Worship program for kindergarten through second grade during the Sunday service, occasional weeknight programs designed to draw family units together through prayer and study, Confirmation class for older youth, mission and service projects, ecumenical events with other area churches, and worship leadership training and liturgy-writing workshops.
Worship itself is intentionally designed for all ages. During the service there is a Time for All God's Children, when the youngest among the congregation are invited forward for a special talk about the day's theme or Scripture reading. After that time, students from kindergarten through second grade leave the sanctuary for their own age-appropriate experience of worship, while older children are invited to choose a worship aid, including coloring materials, puzzles and games related to the day's lessons, fidgets, art supplies, storybooks, and Children's Bibles, to take back to their seats. Younger children are most likely to follow the actions of the service when seated up front, and a nursery room with childcare is also available.
Youth ministry at RPPC takes several forms. There is a regular Youth Group, a Youth Visibility Sunday when youth take prominent leadership roles in worship, and PresbyCorps, a service-oriented youth ministry. The Director of Christian Education, Shayla Redfearn, is a Baltimore City native and ordained minister whose background includes youth ministry, AmeriCorps service, and a doctorate in leadership studies. She has written biblical curriculum for the congregation and continues to develop the church's programs for children, youth, and families.
Confirmation is offered every few years, when there is a group of young people ready to join the church. Confirmation is taught as the process of confirming the vows made at baptism and claiming them as one's own, not as a statement of unwavering belief but as a readiness to begin a lifelong process of wrestling with questions of faith and doubt. Confirmands attend discussion-based classes, commit to service within the church and community, assist in worship leadership, and write a statement of faith. They are supported by teachers, mentors, and the whole congregation, and the process culminates in a confirmation in the regular worship service, usually at the end of May or beginning of June.
Pastoral Care, Prayer, and a Warm Welcome
Just as a family cares for one another, so does the church family at RPPC. The Deacons carry much of this ministry, and the pastor is always available by appointment for pastoral care, counseling, and spiritual conversation. Hospital visits are arranged as soon as the office is notified, since new health care regulations mean that hospitals no longer notify a church when one of its members is admitted. Members and friends in need of a visit or a ride to church can request one through the office.
The Welcoming Ministry, whose name says exactly what it does, promotes Christian hospitality with warmth and friendliness, and advocates for care across lines of age, race, gender, status, or sexual orientation. The congregation is committed to the conviction that all are created in the image of God and deserve dignity, belonging, and love, and that faith grows by welcoming others and supporting one another. Prayer requests can be submitted through the office, and prayer concerns are lifted up in the life of the church.
A Caregiver Lunch gathers on the second Sunday of each month after worship. Anyone in a caregiver role for a parent, partner, sibling, or other loved one is invited to come to the downstairs assembly hall for nourishment and support. The church provides everything; no one is asked to bring anything.
There are many reasons people find their way to RPPC. Some are lifelong Presbyterians; others come from Catholic, evangelical, or other Christian backgrounds. Some are returning to church after many years away. Others are exploring Christianity for the first time. Some come from another tradition and bring with them their own questions, hopes, and experiences. Wherever someone is in their faith journey, there is a place for them. As the church puts it, faith at RPPC includes curiosity, questions, growth, and sometimes uncertainty, and laughter is a regular part of worship and other gatherings.
The RPPC Garden and a Wide Mission
For more than a century, RPPC has put faith into action through mission work in Baltimore and beyond. The Mission Committee oversees a budget that supports partner organizations primarily located in Baltimore but reaching as far away as Haiti and Bangladesh. The list of supported organizations is long and varied. It includes Kay Papa Nou and Unity House in Haiti, providing orphanage and educational support; GEDCO CARES, which offers emergency assistance for members of the northern Baltimore community; Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake, helping to build housing in the Woodbourne-McCabe neighborhood; My Sister's Place and Benevolent Baskets, serving women and children in need; the Board of Lady Managers and Hoover Low Vision Center, serving people with low vision and blindness; Gilchrist Hospice Care, providing hospice care for the terminally ill; the McKim Center, a community center for children in the Jonestown area; Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland; Moveable Feast, providing meals and other services to those who are sick; the charities of the Presbytery of Baltimore, including Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Our Shared Ministry, and the Pastor's Discretionary Fund; Shepherd's Clinic, providing health care to the uninsured; The Resource Exchange, providing home starter kits for the recently homeless; and Soul Kitchen, providing monthly meals to the local community.
The RPPC Garden is a tangible expression of the same commitment. What began as a simple idea has become a continuing source of fresh produce for neighbors through GEDCO CARES. From a small growing plot, the garden has produced an average of 190 pounds of vegetables each year, with collards, kale, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, beans, and carrots among the regular crops. Volunteers of all ages tend the soil from April to October, growing food and relationships at the same time. Cherry tomatoes have proven especially useful for CARES, where they can be shared in small, accessible portions.
Tangible Giving on Communion Sundays has become a way to help young people understand stewardship and mission through hands-on practice. On the first Sunday of each month, in conjunction with Communion, the congregation collects special items such as canned goods or clothing. Two seasonal collections have become regular traditions, including a November food drive for the GEDCO CARES food pantry leading up to Thanksgiving, and a December mitten tree in the Fellowship Room, with mittens, scarves, and hats going to the McKim Center. The church's book drive each fall, when members bring in books to donate to Reading Partners, helps Baltimore City students foster a love of reading.
The Capital Campaign, called "Come and See: An Open Invitation," has set aside funds specifically to support partners beyond the church's walls. Recent grants have supported equity-focused programming at Western High School, including a math lab, attendance initiatives, and restorative practices, and have sponsored book fairs through Reading Partners of Baltimore where hundreds of students received diverse books to build their home libraries.
Learning Beyond the Pews
Learning at RPPC takes many forms. The Adult Education Forum meets most Sunday mornings at 9 AM. The Faith and Fiction Book Group gathers on the second Wednesday of each month at 7 PM by Zoom, choosing a different book each month, sometimes new fiction, sometimes a classic, sometimes historical fiction, with the group's selection made collectively. Recent selections have included The Astral Library by Kate Quinn, Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy, Kin by Tayari Jones, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, and Liking What You See: A Documentary by Ted Chiang. The group takes a hiatus in August and resumes in September.
The Faith on Film Group is for those who enjoy movies or theater. Members attend a relevant film or theater production together and then gather at a restaurant or café afterward to discuss what they saw and what it had to say about faith.
The Racial Justice Committee is concerned with exploring issues of racial justice and discerning what next steps the church should take as a community. Its work has been informed by the words of scripture in Micah 6:8 and Matthew 22:37-40, the latter being Jesus'summary of the greatest commandment as love of God and love of neighbor. The committee has hosted an Advancing Racial Justice Speaker Series that has welcomed speakers working in healthcare, housing, civil rights, public education, and public transportation. Each session has been followed by time for light refreshments and informal discussion. Recent speakers have included Tyrone Kent, Director of Roca Baltimore, whose work focuses on the dangers that shape the lives of young men and the conditions for meaningful, lasting change.
The Art Exhibitions program is another way RPPC opens its doors to the wider community. The sanctuary and adjacent spaces host rotating exhibitions of regional artists throughout the year, with much of the work for sale and a percentage of profits going to the church's mission partner, Charter City Springs Elementary and Middle School. The exhibitions have included an inaugural painting exhibition, Human / Nature, The Sunday Painters Exhibition, the Baltimore Watercolor Society Associate Members Exhibition, and Artful Harvest. Artists interested in exhibiting are invited to contact the church.
Across the year, the congregation gathers in other ways as well. There is fellowship time after worship each Sunday, and a calendar of seasonal and occasional gatherings that includes Deacon's Bingo, an Easter Egg Hunt, the Strawberry Festival, the Fourth of July Parade, Back-to-School Sunday, the Halloween Party, an interfaith Thanksgiving service with other Roland Park congregations, the Greening of the Sanctuary, caroling, and the Christmas Pageant. All-church fellowship events such as bowling, mini-golf, and Game Night are scheduled periodically. Kids Night Out gives parents a break. And intergenerational work days in the garden, holiday celebrations, and ecumenical events with other area churches round out the rhythm of the year.
A Sanctuary Renewed: The Come and See Campaign
The building itself is entering a season of renewal under the Come and See: An Open Invitation capital campaign. Drawing on the words of Jesus in John 1:35-46, where the disciples are invited simply to come and see, the campaign aims to widen the church's welcome and to expand its invitation. The congregation has chosen the theme because, as they put it, Christ's invitation is always bigger than the church's own, and the church must always strive to widen its welcome in its own time and place.
The scope of the renovation includes a redesigned front entrance and new signage along Roland Avenue, new tower stairs, lighting, and doors with windows, interior tower renovations for better flow, an ADA-compliant ramp to the chancel, new chancel furniture with enhanced sightlines, and a permanent audio-visual station with upgrades for streaming and sound. The work is being undertaken to enhance the accessibility, safety, and beauty of the building, ensuring that it remains a welcoming space for all who come for solace, fellowship, and spiritual growth.
Throughout the campaign, Sunday worship continues at 10:30 AM in the fully accessible assembly hall while construction proceeds, with worshippers entering through the glass doors on Upland Road. Free parking remains available on both Roland Avenue and Upland Road, with handicap parking reserved on Upland Road. The red narthex doors facing Roland Avenue and the glass doors facing Upland Road both lead into the building, with a wheelchair-accessible ramp on Upland Road and an elevator inside.
A Neighborhood Church with a Long Memory
Roland Park Presbyterian Church is, in the end, what it has been since that spring evening in 1901 when twenty-one men and women decided to form a congregation: a community of faith that takes its commitments seriously without taking itself too seriously. Laughter is a regular part of worship. Being a smaller congregation means members are hands-on in worship and in church life, serving as liturgists and greeters, joining the choir or handbell choir, leading book groups and film groups, gardening, painting, raising money for the food pantry, and gathering for taco dinners on Game Night.
The church's commitments are clear. RPPC is pursuing justice, through the work of the Racial Justice Committee, Matthew 25 designation, and partners in Baltimore and beyond. RPPC is practicing hospitality, through the Welcoming Ministry, the LGBTQIA+ affirmation, the mitten tree and food drive each winter, and the open communion table on the first Sunday of every month. RPPC is engaging curious faith, through the Narrative Lectionary that runs through three years of Scripture, the sermon discussion guides that follow every sermon, the questions that the Adult Education Forum takes seriously, and the door that remains open to anyone who wants to wrestle with what they believe.
For 125 years and counting, the cross with two orbiting rings has hung in the chancel, inviting each worshiper to bring their own interpretation. Some see the rings of an atom or the orbits of planets, a reminder of both the intimacy and the enormity of God's love. Some see halos, some flower petals, some the hint of the Chi Rho or christogram, an ancient symbol for Christ. The church does not insist on any one meaning. It invites every worshiper to bring their own thoughts, interpretations, imperfections, and experiences to bear in finding its significance for their own life and world. That invitation, extended week after week, is what has kept the congregation going for a hundred and twenty-five years.