This past Sunday we celebrated the Feast Day of Absalom Jones, the first African-American Episcopal priest. He helped form St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Absalom Jones was born into slavery and ultimately was freed and bought freedom for his wife. He had the love of Christ in his heart, was a great evangelist, and was dedicated to breaking the bonds of slavery and to do it in the name of Christ.
Our Godly Play class heard the story of Absalom Jones and then created puppets depicting characters in his story. Mother Barbara also preached on the texts celebrating his feast day and told the story of how he answered Jesus’ commandment to “love one another as I have loved you”. To read the sermon, please go to the sermon archive on this website.
Here are some photos from the day:
Absalom Jones is part of our Episcopal heritage. It’s good to continue our education about him and our Episcopal story.