Absolom Jones
by The Reverend Beth Humphrey
On February 14 Lower School Chaplain The Reverend Beth Humphrey delivered a chapel talk on Absolom Jones.
The time was 1786. 1786. George Washington had not yet been elected President. The Constitution had not been written. This country was still operating under the Articles of Confederation. Ships filled with African people were still coming into American ports, still selling human beings as slaves.
Washington, DC, did not exist.
That was the time.
The place was Philadelphia . More specifically, the place was St. George's Methodist Church in Philadelphia . It was a normal Sunday in the fall. The church service had started and people knelt to pray the opening prayers.
Suddenly, the ushers moved forward and tapped several of the kneeling parishioners on the shoulder. In the middle of the prayer, the ushers asked these men, who included Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, to get up and move. These members of the congregation were told that they were to go to the back of the balcony.
They were not to pray with the rest of the congregation…because they were not white.
Absalom Jones, Richard Allen and the other men got up…but they did not move to the back of the balcony where they were told to go. They walked out of St. George's Church completely.
This week in the calendar of the Episcopal Church, we celebrate the feast day of Absalom Jones, remembered for his courage, his faith, and his perseverance.
Absalom Jones was born a slave in Delaware in 1746. He taught himself to read with the New Testament. As a teenager, he was sold to a shop owner in Philadelphia who allowed him to work nights for pay. He married another slave named Mary when he was twenty years old, and then he worked doubly hard. He wanted to make money to buy her freedom. He and his wife decided to buy her freedom first, because then all their children would be freeborn. Finally, when he was thirty-eight years old, he had saved enough money to buy his own freedom.
Absalom Jones was a devout Christian and he became a member of St. George's Methodist Church. There he met another free man, Richard Allen, and they became close friends. Together they formed the Free African Society-- which was a religious group, but it also helped African Americans get ahead in their lives.
Both Absalom Jones and Richard Allen were great preachers and evangelists. It turned out that they were almost too good. Working out of St. George's Methodist Church , they greatly increased its membership among African-Americans…..so much that it was threatening to the white members. The white leadership secretly decided to segregate the church--and that is what led to the walkout in 1786.
After Absalom Jones and the other men left the church that Sunday, they worked through the Free African Society to form a non-denominational church. They needed funds for construction, so they held a banquet. The story of the banquet goes something like this: First, 100 construction workers and two leading white citizens were served a feast by some of the free African Americans. Then, they rose and the African Americans sat down and were served by “some of the most respectable of the white company.” Eventually, working together, St. Thomas ' African Church was built. The congregation voted to unite with the Episcopal Church because most of them were Episcopalian or Methodist.
When that happened, Richard Allen, Absalom Jones' friend, left the new church because they wanted to remain in the Methodist Church . That group began the first AME church, The African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Meanwhile, the church that Absalom Jones and the Free African Society had formed became known as St. Thomas African Episcopal Church. It was recognized as part of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania in 1794. Absalom Jones was ordained a deacon, and then, a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1802.
He was the first African American to be ordained to the ministry in the United States.
We remember Absalom Jones today...
- because he was the first African American ordained minister in our country...
- because he worked to gain freedom and overcame prejudice...
- and most of all, because he was faithful.
He was faithful to his God and he was faithful to his people. Over two hundred years later, this is something we should all still strive for. To be faithful to God requires that we work for the equality of all God's children.
That is always part of being a Christian. Always . No matter who we are. No matter where we are. No matter our race or class or political views.
Remember the reading for today?
The Spirit of the Lord is upon us--not just upon Isaiah, not just upon Jesus, but all of us…
“to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners.”
God asks us all to work together to make God's kingdom a reality, to learn together , and most of all, to pray together . God does not want any of us to be someone who taps a person on the shoulder and says, “You don't belong here.” God wants each of us to be someone who will kneel down in prayer beside our brothers and sisters, no matter who they are,...
...no matter who WE are.
[top]
|
