1882 - Zion Methodist Protestant Church, Shipley (Westminster), MD
This may be the oldest extant Methodist Protestant church in Carroll County, Maryland.
The Methodist Protestant Church was organized as a result of dissatisfaction among some Methodists with regard to the increasingly exclusive power of the clergy and the exclusion of laymen from the Annual (regional) and General (national) Conferences. Originally organized at a convention in Baltimore on November 12, 1828, the first General Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church was called to order in Baltimore on November 2, 1830. The Methodist Protestant Church rejected the use of bishops. In the Methodist Episcopal Church, bishops had the power to appoint pastors to local churches. The Methodist Protestant Church appointed pastors by president of the conference, the conference then affirmed the appointment.
The Methodist Protestant Church was reunited with the Methodist Episcopal Church at the Uniting Convention of 1939 which formed The Methodist Church.
