History of the Emmanuel United Methodist Church

“A Church with a Vision”

The original “Methodist Episcopal Church South” began working in Cumberland in 1866. The Reverends John Haggly and Richard Owens were the first ministers to plant the seed of Methodism in Cumberland.

Emmanuel United Methodist Church began with the organization of a Sunday School on the fourth Sunday of May, 1900. Bethel Evangelical Church was organized as a mission church in South Cumberland in September 1905 by the Pennsylvania Conference of the Evangelical Church.

Emmanuel met in a rented storeroom on Virginia Avenue. The attendance quickly grew and a lot was purchased on Humbird Street to build a small chapel, which was to be called Agur Chapel. In March 1917, the Baltimore Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal South Church approved the request of Agur Chapel to become an independent charge, and the church was renamed Emmanuel Methodist Church, meaning “God With Us.”

Bethel Evangelical Church was built in 1908 on Four Hundred East Third Street and in 1909 the mission had been extended to Calvary Evangelical Church on Mary Street. In 1955 the Evangelical Church and the United Brethren Church in Christ merged to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church; and in 1968, the Evangelical United Brethren and the Methodist Church merged forming Bethel United Methodist Church.

Faced with the closing of Bethel United Methodist Church, the Pastor-Parish Relations Committee of Bethel met on October 1, 1991 to discuss a merger with another church. Due to the small size of the Bethel congregation and the increasing financial expenses necessary to maintain the church, it was recommended to consider a merger or be forced to close Bethel United Methodist Church.

Bethel had worked with Emmanuel on various projects in the South Cumberland Parish and had jointly sponsored, along with Calvary United Methodist Church, a very successful Vacation Bible School. A plan of merger was developed on November 24, 1991, through the efforts of a joint committee consisting of members from Bethel and Emmanuel. The plan was voted upon at the local church conference, and all members in attendance at Bethel voted the following week. It was a difficult decision to reach. However, we officially joined together on January 1, 1992, in faith and love for the work of our Lord, and became Emmanuel-Bethel United Methodist Church.

With the merger of the two churches, a stronger Family of God has grown, looking forward to serving Christ in the years to come. Through the combined efforts of the congregation, we continue to advance spiritually (through fellowship) and physically (through growth).

The Present Emmanuel United Methodist Church building was built in 1981, fourteen years after the completion of the educational building in 1967. We are a “Church With a Vision,” but the history of Emmanuel United Methodist Church is still being written. We are a part of that history because history is in all of us. The present and the future of the church is in our hands. When the next “bend in the road” appears, we will accomplish it successfully with the Lord’s guiding hands. May we all be a part of making sure that the present is bright and the future brighter.