Shireen Korkzan, Episcopal News Service (ENS); Pennsylvania Episcopalians, church to celebrate life and legacy of Absalom Jones
"Church leaders and Episcopalians in the Diocese of Pennsylvania will celebrate the Feast of the Rev. Absalom Jones, The Episcopal Church’s first Black ordained priest, on Feb. 15 during a livestreamed service at the historic African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia, where Jones’ remains are interred in a side altar...
Absalom Jones was born into slavery in 1746 and released from bondage in 1784 following the American Revolution. Three years later, he and Allen, who also was the first bishop of the AME Church, co-founded the Free African Society, an organization that provided aid to Black people newly freed from enslavement.
Jones founded St. Thomas in 1792 and served as the church’s first rector. In 1802, he was ordained a priest. Jones’ feast day is on The Episcopal Church’s Lesser Feasts and Fasts calendar on Feb. 13, the date commemorating his death in 1818 at 71...
“In these difficult times, when even Christian communities can be strained by the forces of division and despair, our church urgently needs more leaders like Absalom Jones – leaders who act on behalf of the oppressed and distressed of our times, and at the same time embody the command Jesus gives us in the Gospel appointed for his feast day: ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you,” Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe said in a Feb. 12 letter promoting the fund. Rowe preached at St. Thomas’ for Jones’ feast day in 2025.
This year’s celebration comes two weeks after the National Park Service removed an open-air exhibit featuring Jones and Allen from Independence National Historical Park.
The now removed exhibit, “The President’s House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation,” opened in 2010 on the site where Presidents George Washington and John Adams lived in the 1790s. It was removed in response to President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order prohibitingnational sites from showcasing negative aspects of U.S. history, including slavery.
The removal “strategically” occurring days before the start of Black History Month, February, was “absolutely deliberate and calculated,” Shaw said, noting that 2026 also marks the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding."
