Brown Memorial is an inclusive Christian community with historic roots in the heart of Baltimore City. We’re located at the corner of Park Avenue and Lafayette Street, but we also find ourselves at the intersection of ancient traditions and modern questions. We’re committed to following Jesus through the crossroads of belief and doubt, busyness and loneliness, joy and pain. We are trying to create a space – within our hectic daily lives – for a different way of living.
Life at Brown emphasizes the worship of God through song, story, Scripture and sermon. Children, youth and adults alike are challenged to engage the Christian tradition and their own experiences without fear as we discern together how to love God and our neighbors.
Lately we’ve been asking ourselves what it means to be the church in Baltimore City. What is our mission in this time and place? The answer to that question is complex, but on a very basic level we believe that to love God is to love our neighbor. Therefore, we are working to build authentic relationships across historic boundaries of geography, race and class, trusting the Spirit to transform and equip us for our calling.
Our aspirations don’t automatically mean that we have achieved the degree of diversity that we continue to pursue. However, people of many gender identities, sexual orientations, races, ages, family structure and incomes call Brown Memorial home. With the earliest of Christians, we continue to believe that our baptism in the faith of Christ is what makes this kind of vibrant community possible.
We continue to respond to God’s call to become in fact – as well as in faith – a community that reflects the diversity of the world where we live and as a sign of the community that God calls together to be the church.
