Ministerial Career
Jones became a lay minister for black members in the interracial congregation of St. George's Methodist Church. Together with Richard Allen, he was one of the first African Americans licensed to preach by the Methodist Church.
In 1787 Jones and Allen, together with other black members, left St. George's, as they were tired of being segregated to a gallery and given second-class status in the congregation. They founded the Free African Society (FAS), first conceived as a non-denominational mutual aid society, to help newly freed slaves in Philadelphia. Jones and Allen separated over their different directions in religion, but they remained lifelong friends and collaborators.
At the beginning of 1791, Jones started holding religious services at FAS. This became the core of his congregation for a new church. Wanting to establish a black congregation independent of white control, Jones in 1792 founded the congregation of the African Church in Philadelphia. It petitioned to become an Episcopal parish. The church opened its doors on July 17, 1794, as the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, the first black church in Philadelphia. Jones was ordained as a deacon in 1795 and as a priest in 1804, the first African-American priest in the Episcopal Church. He was a well-known orator and helped establish the tradition of anti-slavery sermons on New Year's Day.
A month after the church opened, the Founders and Trustees published "The Causes and Motives for Establishing St. Thomas's African Church of Philadelphia," clearly stating their intent
"to arise out of the dust and shake ourselves, and throw off that servile fear, that the habit of oppression and bondage trained us up in."
It was rumored that Absalom possessed supernatural abilities to influence the minds of assembled congregations. White observers failed to recognize his oratory skills and believed rhetoric to be beyond the capabilities of black people. Numerous other African American leaders were similarly implicated in supernatural activities due to these beliefs.
Read more about this topic: Absalom Jones
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