Loading...On February 11th, St. Paul's, Wellsboro observed its first Absalom Jones Commemoration, in the context of the Saturday Night Service Mass.
Absalom Jones is commemorated in the BCP Calendar of saints on February 13th, the day he departed this life in the year 1818. Jones, an African-American former slave, was a priest who established the first black Episcopal Church in the fledgling United States.
St. Paul's Saturday Night Service ministers to (and outreaches beyond) about 30 of St. Paul's active members, and sometimes functions as a Small Church within a large, traditional parish. The Saturday Nighters often "pilot" music and liturgies that are later incorporated into Sunday morning worship; their planning for this year's inaugural Absalom Jones service included several rare African-American Spirituals led in the authentic, spontaneous, slavery-era style which is still a living tradition in many Black churches.
Because the Northern Tier is a mountain-ridge region through which the Underground Railroad led many former slaves to Canada, a featured Spiritual was "Climbing High Mountains." Contemporary lyrics were added for the occasion.
Other music included "Done Made My Vow to the Lord" and praise chorus "Grace, Grace".
Born into slavery in 1746 in Sussex County, Delaware, of African-American parents, Absalom Jones was sold at age sixteen to a shopkeeper from Philadelphia. As an industrious and hard worker, Absalom Jones was permitted to work independently at night - and to study.
Attending a free school during the evenings, Jones learned to read and write. He had a particular fascination for the Bible, which he studied for hours. Married in 1770, he purchased his wife’s freedom by 1778 - and then his own several years later.
A dynamic person, Absalom Jones (with Richard Allen) established a worshiping black congregation that assembled at St. George’s, a white Methodist Church. They were licensed as preachers by 1784.
While some might have held at the time that it was forward-thinking for the established congregation to allow African-Americans to join at worship, some of the white congregants were uncomfortable. A decision was made that persons of color would be "relegated" to the upper gallery of the Church, where it was hoped that they might remain out of sight (and therefore out of mind). It is said that Allen and Jones were informed of this decision during a prayer, at which time an usher tapped them on the shoulder and told them to move to the gallery. As a consequence, Allen and Jones - and their followers - left St. George’s.
Richard Allen became known as the founder of the AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church. Absalom Jones became an Episcopal Priest.
Jones established the first Black Episcopal Church in the fledgling United States. Ordained Deacon by William White, the first Bishop of Pennsylvania in 1795, and Priest on Saint Matthew’s Day, 1802, Absalom Jones became the founder of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, a worshiping congregation that flourishes to this present day.
Jones and Allen continued to collaborate: they petitioned Congress and the State Legislature to abolish slavery in 1800. Absalom Jones was known as an orator, but beloved for his skill and care expressed in pastoral care.
