After nearly seven decades on Providence Road in Towson, the Maryland Presbyterian Church plans to relocate, recently listing its property for sale for $2.2 million.

The church is not closing, said the Rev. McKenna Wallen, who has been Maryland Presbyterian’s pastor for nearly three years, but leaders are not yet sure what the future holds for their ministry.

“There is more discernment to do; that was the first step,” Wallen said of listing the roughly 5-acre property and church building.

The planned sale also means Bridges Montessori School, which has long operated its Towson campus out of the church, will consolidate with its other facility just north of Bel Air.

Wallen said her church, like many, is struggling with diminished attendance, but budget issues are the main reason for the sale.

“We have a core of really faithful, progressive folks who had become really sad and upset that our budget was not reflecting our values,” Wallen said.

Maryland Presbyterian is a welcoming, LGBTQ-led church that prides itself on inclusion; one of its stated core values is reading the Bible with the benefit of modern scholarship. And Wallen said the church wants to focus more on its ministry, and less on maintaining that sizable Towson property.

Recent upkeep on the building’s boilers and roof made that imbalance clear, Wallen said.

The parcel they’re vacating is just north of the Interstate 695 interchange and includes one main building — a religious and educational structure of about 9,200 square feet — as well as a small parking lot and several forested acres in the back.

The church tapped Foundry Commercial to handle the sale, and the listing went up Feb. 18.

Andrew J. Genova, a Washington, D.C.-based managing director at Foundry, said they’re in the early stages of selling the property.

“Our goal is to get the word out as much as possible that there could be an opportunity here, without saying what is going to be the specific requirement of those interested in this opportunity,” Genova said.

“To try to predict what may be the future of this parcel would be inappropriate,” he said. “We need to be able to gather all the appropriate information, all the appropriate interested groups, and at that point, provide the information to the congregation to discern a little bit more.”

Wallen said the church’s assessment will be multilayered, built on input from the church council and the congregation, a group she said includes nearby residents.

“Legally, we’re open to all buyers,” Wallen added.

Bridges Montessori, which has programs for children ages six weeks to 12 years, will be forced to exit Towson in light of the sale, and is making plans to consolidate into its other campus in Bel Air, school head Jennifer Bridges wrote in a letter sent to parents of students in October.

Bridges wrote that she attempted to purchase the Providence property but wasn’t able to because of Presbyterian bylaws requiring it to hit the open market. The asking price then proved a barrier, she said.

The Towson school is set to close in August, and Bridges said in the letter that they’ll move their staff to the other location, and will offer a bus service to assist with student transportation.

The Bel Air location, which is 22 miles by car away, has 3 acres, native vegetation, a flock of chickens and “room for our community to grow,” Bridges said.

Emily Chalk, the school’s community life director, said in an email that while they are “sad to be closing that chapter of Bridges Montessori’s story,” the school is “excited for what is to come” at the Bel Air campus.

Bridges added in the letter that she wishes the church the best “in their courageous move to change their approach to ministry,” as she said they are “doing their best in difficult times and staying true to their mission.”

Membership has been declining about 4.5% a year nationwide for the Presbyterian Church in the past decade, falling by nearly 46,000 in 2023 to just under 1.1 million.

Maryland Presbyterian announced its plans to nearby residents in a Feb. 10 letter, stating that “ministry is changing,” and “after a season of discernment about our future,” the church decided to list.

Surrounding property owners have expressed a hope that any new owner doesn’t make dramatic changes to the site.

Mary Jane Kiehne, who lives nearby with her husband, son and three dogs, has a backyard that abuts the forested acreage behind the church. She said she “would love to see this wooded area preserved.”

“I just hope that the future buyer of the property can maintain its natural state,” Kiehne said.