Video of service
Worship Booklet
Sermon
Today is the Sixth Sunday of the Church’s season of Epiphany. This month is also Black History Month, and the thirteenth of February ... today ... is the Feast of Absalom Jones, the first Black priest in the Episcopal Church.
Worship Booklet
Sermon
Today is the Sixth Sunday of the Church’s season of Epiphany. This month is also Black History Month, and the thirteenth of February ... today ... is the Feast of Absalom Jones, the first Black priest in the Episcopal Church.
In the name of the God of all Creation,
The God alive in each of us as God was alive in Jesus,
And the power of God known in the Spirit.
Amen.
The God alive in each of us as God was alive in Jesus,
And the power of God known in the Spirit.
Amen.
Today is the Sixth Sunday of the Church’s season of Epiphany. This month is also Black History Month, and the thirteenth of February ... today ... is the Feast of Absalom Jones, the first Black priest in the Episcopal Church.
Our last Vespers service before the COVID shutdown was in February 2020, which seems like eons ago. Since it was Black History Month I shared some thoughts on the dark side of the Episcopal Church’s involvement in Black History. My remarks this morning build upon the reflections I made then, so I apologize if some of this is redundant. However, this is also about the Holy Spirit, how the Spirit has been at work in my life and the life of St. Cyprian’s … especially around the issue of race.
During Black History Month we laud men and women of color for their accomplishments and contributions … people like Fredrick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In the Episcopal Church there are also men and women that we celebrate, Absalom Jones, Peter Williams Cassey, Bishop Barbara Harris, and our current Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry. However, behind the individual stories of each of those outstanding people is the social, political, and church context which so often goes unmentioned. That context is the role that slavery, segregation, and racism has played in the life of this country … and in the life of the Episcopal Church. In that context the accomplishments and contributions of people of color only shine brighter … the challenges that they overcame magnifies the deeds that were achieved.
So, I share this information out of a certain amount of ignorance, naiveté, and with an awareness of my own white privilege. I am sure that there are other sources of information that are much more complete, and better articulated, but this is what I have to offer this morning.
As most of us who live here in St. Augustine know, Pedro Menendez brought slaves with him on his voyage which established our city. And, there were slaves on other voyages of Spanish and Portuguese explorers prior to 1565. But, the selling of slaves from Africa began in 1619 when twenty black people were sold at Point Comfort, a port near Jamestown, Virginia. Those Africans were most likely put to work in the tobacco fields that had recently been established in the area.
Around the world, forced labor was not uncommon at that time. Africans and Europeans had been trading goods and people across the Mediterranean for centuries. However, the trans-Atlantic slave trade introduced a system of slavery that was commercialized, racialized, and inherited. Enslaved people … Black Africans … were seen not as people at all, but as commodities to be bought, sold and exploited. The sale of these twenty African people set the course for what would become the institution of slavery in the United States.
The social, political, and church context for this is important. The slave trade flourished in the British colonies of what is now the United States … especially in the South. The political leaders in these colonies were also the leaders of commerce, and often the leaders in the Anglican Church. In the British colonies the Anglican Church was the “established” Church … to hold government office, men had to “belong” to the Church of England.
As the colonies moved toward declaring independence from England and the Revolutionary War, this became somewhat complicated, since Church of England membership required allegiance to the King of England. After the Revolutionary War the Anglican Church in this new nation formed as the Episcopal Church, but occupied the same buildings as they had prior to the war, and with prayers for our president, rather than the king. This new “Protestant Episcopal Church” lost many of those loyal to the crown in England, yet it was still a powerful entity.
So, this is the social, political, and church context of slavery at the time this nation was formed. Over two thirds of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Anglicans who became Episcopalians. And, over forty of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence were also slave owners. Fourteen of our presidents were slave owners before and/or during their presidency. In the South, a number of priests and bishops in the Episcopal Church also owned slaves. Yet, as powerful as the Episcopal Church was at that time, between 1792 and 1860 the Episcopal Church refused to take an official position for or against slavery, for fear of schism and from the idea that the church ought not to take any stands about secular or civil matters.
There were a few priests and bishops in the North who supported abolition, including Rev. E.M.P. Wells of Boston, Bishop Hopkins of Vermont, Bishop Whittingham of Maryland, and Bishop Phillips Brooks of Massachusetts. Yet, there were others who tried to justify both slavery and racism with reference to Holy Scripture, including Dr. Samuel Seabury, the first American Bishop … Bishop of Connecticut.
It was in that environment that grass root efforts by African Americans began to assert themselves. In 1786, Blacks and whites were worshipping together at St. George’s Methodist Church in Philadelphia. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones … two Black friends … were successful evangelists, bringing in so many African-Americans that the White parishioners of St. George’s became anxious. One Sunday, without warning, all Black worshippers were asked to move to the gallery. Absalom Jones and Richard Allen remained kneeling in prayer until ushers picked them up and removed them.
Absalom Jones and Richard Allen left St. George’s and formed the Free African Society, a mutual aid society for African Americans. Eventually Richard Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church … St. Paul AME down the street is part of that denomination … and Absalom Jones formed the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas. St. Thomas was the first black Episcopal Church in the United States.
In 1794 the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, built by the Free African Society, applied for membership in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania provided that, among other things, the church would have control over its own affairs, and that Absalom Jones could be licensed as a lay reader and eventually ordained. Abslaom Jones was ordained deacon in 1795 and priest in the Episcopal Church in 1802.
In 1808 St. Philip’s African Episcopal Church in New York City was founded by the Rev. Peter Williams, Jr., the second black person ordained in the Episcopal Church. The Rev. Peter Williams Cassey, Jr., the first Vicar of St. Cyprian’s from 1900 to 1917, was the grandson of the Rev. Peter Williams Jr.
Virginia Theological Seminary was founded in 1823 by several slaveholding men, including Francis Scott Key, who wrote the national anthem. Francis Scott Key, who was a United States attorney in the District of Columbia, so opposed emancipation that he criminally prosecuted journalists who supported abolition. Francis Scott Key and the other religious founders supported the American Colonization Society, which advocated sending freed slaves back to Africa … specifically to the country of Liberia.
Not only did Virginia Seminary use slave labor, but, after slavery ended, it refused admission of Black students until 1951. In 1841, slaves owned by a construction contractor built Aspinwall Hall, a red-brick building with a stately white tower, which served as classroom space for 150 years, and now houses the seminary’s administrative offices. In 2006, when the seminary’s archivist went looking for records of the school’s role in slavery, she also found that Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate, rented slaves to work at the seminary in 1850s, and that early professors and Virginia bishops also owned slaves.
Phillips Brooks from Boston, when he arrived at Virginia Seminary in 1856 wrote a letter home: “Of course there is nothing of the brutality of slavery here [at the Seminary], but the institution is degrading the country just as much. All the servants are slaves. Those in the seminary are let out by their masters for so much a year, paid of course to the master just as you’d pay for a horse hired.”
I received my Masters of Divinity at Virginia Theological Seminary in 1975. If something had been said during my seminary studies that there was a linkage to slavery I certainly don’t remember it. However, during the summer between my second and third years of seminary I worked at Sharon Chapel, a church within sight of the tower of Aspinwall Hall. Sharon Chapel was the seminary’s first fieldwork site for seminarians. It was as far from Virginia Seminary as one could ride on horseback, conduct services and visit shut-ins, and return to the seminary in one day.
Several years after graduation from Virginia Seminary I was called as the Rector of Sharon Chapel. In the vestibule of the church was a rather large portrait of Phillips Brooks … a reminder that he had served as a seminarian at Sharon Chapel before me. Phillips Brooks was the author of “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” and later became Rector of Trinity Church, Boston, then Bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts.
In 1980, while I was the Rector of Sharon Chapel, there was a political coup in the country of Liberia in western Africa. Liberia was the country where the American Colonization Society advocated the sending freed slaves. A Liberian Army officer had taken over the political leadership. He rounded up the President and his Cabinet and had them all shot. Only one member of the Cabinet escaped, the Attorney General name Clarence Simpson. Clarence Simpson and his family eventually settled in northern Virginia, and became members of Sharon Chapel.
In September of last year, more than a century after the last enslaved people labored on the Virginia Seminary’s campus, the seminary’s leaders announced plans to atone for that history. They created a $1.7 million reparations fund, becoming one of the first American institutions to allocate money specifically for the descendants of the enslaved. In the first two years of its existence, the Reparations Initiative has issued 17 payments to members of seven different families, awarded its first reparations grant to a historically Black Episcopal church, and uncovered hundreds of records that shed light on the Seminary’s history and connections to the larger institution of slavery in Alexandria and Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.
However, Virginia Seminary is not the only institution affiliated with the Episcopal Church to have a connection to slavery. Sewanee: The University of the South … was formed in 1857 by ten Southern dioceses in the Episcopal Church including the Diocese of Florida. The new University of the South was the only institution of higher education in this nation designed from the start to represent, protect, and promote the South’s civilization of bondage … the beloved “land of the sun and the slave,” as its founders called the region they laid claim to educating and defending. Other universities from Virginia west to Texas had been built in a slaveholding society. Only the University of the South was created expressly for the slaveholding society of the South.
A primary justification for Sewanee’s founding asserted that the white men of the South were positioned better than any other to make the highest contributions to world civilization because slavery allowed them to devote themselves to higher attainments. The organizational blueprint for the institution indicates the founders envisioned the University as a leading center of scientific scholarship proving white racial superiority and the “aptitude” of people of African descent for enslavement.
By the way, this description of the founding of Sewanee comes from a report of the Roberson Project commissioned and supported by the University.
During this Black History Month it seems somehow appropriate to face the sins of the Episcopal Church around this issue of slavery, Jim Crow, and its consequences. St. Cyprian’s is an Historical Black Church. St. Cyprian’s is one of those Episcopal churches that was built by those African Americans living under the oppression of the brutal segregation of the Jim Crow era. We need to celebrate those who founded and built this church … our spiritual ancestors in this sacred space. Yet even that has a dark side. St. Cyprian’s was built so that Black Episcopalians would have a place to worship, and they wouldn’t bother the white Episcopalians at Trinity Parish downtown. Today we … St. Cyprian’s … a Historical Black Church … are a mostly White congregation … having gotten here by White privilege.
All that being said, I somehow feel the Holy Spirit is at work in all this. The genesis of this sermon was in August 2019 when I read the first installment in the New York Times series, “The 1619 Project.” This series … and a subsequent book by the same title … looks at the impact of slavery in our nation’s history, beginning with the first boatload of twenty slaves landing at Point Comfort, Virginia in 1619 … over four hundred years ago.
Then, in September of 2019, came the news that Virginia Theological Seminary was setting up an endowment for reparations to atone for its involvement in slavery. I thought then that I needed to remember that for Black History Month. And then the coincidences … shall I say … synchronistic events … the work of the Holy Spirit … started to add up.
Something tells me that the Holy Spirit is at work in this. I’m really not sure how … or even why … it is happening, but I am open to following wherever this may lead. And we have already started on that journey. In the spring of 2020 a small group of parishioners … curious about the Civil Rights protest in St. Augustine … forma Zoom book study of “If It Takes All Summer.” That group has grown significantly and is now St. Cyprian’s Racial Justice Initiative.
This is the Feast of Absalom Jones, the first Black priest in the Episcopal Church. We celebrate this day in the midst of Black History Month. I do know that when seen through the social, political, and church context of this nation’s history, the accomplishments and contributions of Black Americans … and Black Episcopalians … shine bright.
I end with a prayer:
Set us free, heavenly Father, from every bond of prejudice and fear; that, honoring the steadfast courage of Rev. Absalom Jones, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Rev. Peter William Cassey, Rosa Parks, Dr. Robert B. Hayling, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and all the Black men and women in the history of our nation, we may show forth in our lives the reconciling love and true freedom of the children of God, which you have given us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Amen.
PRESIDING BISHOP INVITES GIFTS TO ABSALOM JONES FUND FOR EPISCOPAL HBCUS
Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry invites people of all backgrounds and faiths to support the hope-filled, life-impacting work of two historically Black institutions of higher education through donations and dedicated offerings on the Feast of Absalom Jones—the first Black priest ordained by the church—observed February 13.
The full message is available. To make a donation, please visit The Episcopal Church website.
REVISED ABSALOM JONES BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
By Arthur K. Sudler, William Carl Bolivar Director, Historical Society & Archives, African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas
Absalom Jones was born enslaved to Abraham Wynkoop a wealthy Anglican planter in 1746 in Delaware. He was working in the fields when Abraham recognized that he was an intelligent child and ordered that he be trained to work in the house. Absalom eagerly accepted instruction in reading. He also saved money he was given and bought books (among them a primer, a spelling book, and a bible). Abraham Wynkoop died in 1753 and by 1755 his younger son Benjamin had inherited the plantation. When Absalom was sixteen Benjamin Wynkoop sold the plantation and Absalom’s mother, sister, and five brothers. Wynkoop brought Absalom to Philadelphia where he opened a store and joined St. Peter’s Church. In Philadelphia Benjamin Wynkoop permitted Absalom to attend a night school for black people that was operated by Quakers following the tradition established by abolitionist teacher Anthony Benezet.
At twenty, with the permission of their masters, Absalom married Mary Thomas who was enslaved to Sarah King who also worshipped at St. Peter’s. The Rev. Jacob Duche performed the wedding at Christ Church. Absalom and his father-in-law, John Thomas, used their savings, and sought donations and loans primarily from prominent Quakers, in order to purchase Mary’s freedom. Absalom and Mary worked very hard to repay the money borrowed to buy her freedom. They saved enough money to buy property and to buy Absalom’s freedom. Although he repeatedly asked Benjamin Wynkoop to allow him to buy his freedom Wynkoop refused. Absalom persisted because as long as he was enslaved Wynkoop could take his property and his money. Finally, in 1784 Benjamin Wynkoop freed Absalom by granting him a manumission. Absalom continued to work in Wynkoop’s store as a paid employee.
Absalom left St. Peter’s Church and began worshipping at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church. He met Richard Allen who had been engaged to preach at St. George’s and the two became lifelong friends, Together, in 1787, they founded the Free African Society a mutual aid benevolent organization that was the first of its kind organized by and for black people. Members of the Society paid monthly dues for the benefit of those in need. At St George’s, Absalom and Richard served as lay ministers for the black membership. The active evangelism of Jones and Allen, greatly increased black membership at St George’s. The black members worked hard to help raise money to build an upstairs gallery intended to enlarge the church. The church leadership decided to segregate the black worshippers in the gallery, without notifying them. During a Sunday morning service a dispute arose over the seats black members had been instructed to take in the gallery and ushers attempted to physically remove them by first accosting Absalom Jones. Most of the black members present indignantly walked out of St. George’s in a body.
Prior to the incident at St. George’s the Free African Society had initiated religious services. Some of these services were presided over by The Rev. Joseph Pilmore an assistant St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. The Society established communication with similar black groups in other cities. In 1792 the Society began to build the African Church of Philadelphia. The church membership took a denominational vote and decided to affiliate with the Episcopal Church. Richard Allen withdrew from the effort as he favored affiliation with the Methodist Church. Absalom Jones was asked to provide pastoral leadership and after prayer and reflection he accepted the call.
The African Church was dedicated on July 17, 1794. The Rev. Dr. Samuel Magaw, rector St. Paul’s Church, preached the dedicatory address. Dr. Magaw was assisted at the service by The Rev. James Abercrombie, assistant minister at Christ Church. Soon thereafter the congregation applied for membership in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania on the following conditions: 1) that they be received as an organized body; 2) that they have control over their own local affairs; 3) that Absalom Jones be licensed as layreader, and, if qualified, be ordained as minister. In October 1794 it was admitted as the African Episcopal Church of St Thomas. The church was incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1796. Bishop William White ordained Jones as deacon in 1795 and as priest on September 21, 1802.
Jones was an earnest preacher. He denounced slavery, and warned the oppressors to “clean their hands of slaves.” To him, God was the Father, who always acted on “behalf of the oppressed and distressed.” But it was his constant visiting and mild manner that made him beloved by his congregation and by the community. St Thomas Church grew to over 500 members during its first year. The congregants formed a day school and were active in moral uplift, self-empowerment, and anti-slavery activities. Known as “the Black Bishop of the Episcopal Church,” Jones was an example of persistent faith in God and in the Church as God’s instrument. Jones died on this day in 1818.
Absalom's autobiographical sketch from Douglass' Annals (1862):
ABSALOM JONES AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH/ANNALS*
The following narrative is copied from the original manuscript written by himself:
“I, Absalom Jones was born in Sussex,” DEL., “on the 6th of November, 1746. I was small, when my master took me from the field to wait and attend on him in the house; and being very fond of learning, I was careful to save the pennies that were given to me by the ladies and gentlemen from time to time. I soon bought myself a primer, and begged to be taught by any body that I found able and willing to give me the least instruction. Soon after this, I was able to purchase a spelling book; for as my money increased, I supplied myself with books, among others, a Testament. For, fondness for books, gave me little or no time for the amusements that took up the leisure hours of my companions. By this course I became singular, and escaped many evils, and also saved my money.
In the year 1762, my mother, five brothers and a sister were sold, and I was brought to the city of Philadelphia with my master. My employment in this city was to wait in the store, pack up and carry out goods. In this situation, I had an opportunity, with the clerk, to get copies set for me; so that I was soon able to write to my mother and brothers, with my own hand. My spelling is bad for want of proper schooling.
In the year 1766, I asked my master the liberty of going one quarter to night-school, which he granted. I had a great desire to learn Arithmetic. In that quarter I learned Addition, Troy weight, Subtraction, Apothecaries’ weight, Practical multiplication, Practical Division, and Reduction.
In the year 1770, I married a wife who was a slave. I soon after proposed to purchase her freedom. To this her mistress agreed, for the sum of forty pounds. Not having the money in hand, I got an appeal drawn, and John Thomas, my father-in-law, and I called upon some of the principal Friends of this city. From some we borrowed, and from other we received donations. In this way we soon raised thirty pounds of the money, her mistress, Sarah King, forgiving the balance of ten pounds. By this time, my master’s family was increased, and I was much hurried in my servitude. However, I took a house, and for seven years, made it my business to work until twelve or one o’clock at night, to assist my wife in obtaining a livelihood, and to pay the money that was borrowed to purchase her freedom.
This being fully accomplished, and having a little money in hand, I made application to my master, in the year 1778, to purchase my own freedom; but, as this was not granted, I fortunately met with a small house and lot of ground, to be sold for one hundred and fifty pounds, continental money. Having laid by some hard money, I sold it for continental and purchased the lot. My desire for freedom increased, as I knew that while I was a slave, my house and lot might be taken as the property of my master. This induced me to make many applications to him for liberty to purchase my freedom; and on the first of October, 1784, he generously gave me a manumission. I have ever since continued in his service at good wages, and I still find it my duty, both late and early, to be industrious to improve the little estate that a kind Providence has put in my hands.
Since my freedom, I have built a couple of small houses on the small lot, which now let for twenty-two pounds a year.”
Douglass, W. (1862). Annals of the first African church, in the United States of America: now styled the African Episcopal church of St. Thomas, Philadelphia, in its connection with the early struggles of the colored people to improve their condition, with the co-operation of the Friends, and other philanthropists; partly derived from the minutes of a beneficial society, established by Absalom Jones, Richard Allen and others, in 1787, and partly from the minutes of the aforesaid church. Philadelphia: King & Baird, printers.
THE REV. PETER WILLIAMS CASSEY, JR.
Peter William Cassey was born in 1831 to a prominent family of abolitionists living in the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia. As a young man, he moved to California where he founded the first secondary school in the state for Blacks. He also founded St. Phillip’s Church, the first place of worship for Black Episcopalians in California. In 1866 he was ordained a Deacon in the Episcopal Church and served congregations in California, North Carolina, and Florida. The Rev. Fr. Peter William Cassey became St. Cyprian’s first fulltime Vicar in 1901 (a year after the consecration of our church sanctuary) and served until his death in 1917. Sadly, the Rev. Fr. Peter William Cassey was never allowed to be ordained a priest, even though Bishop Weed of the Diocese of Florida said “he was more learned in Greek, Latin and theology” than most of the White clergy. The institutional racism of the time was so pervasive that few were able to challenge these set patterns in the Church ... especially in the South. The brass plaque near the door to the church honors the Rev. Fr. P. W. Cassey. On Sunday April 23, 2017 St. Cyprian’s celebrated the 150th anniversary of Rev. Fr. P. W. Cassey’s ordination, and the 100th anniversary of his death. Rev. Cassey is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in St. Augustine.
FATHER EDWIN S. SHIRLEY 1885 – 1982
Vicar of St. Cyprian’s, St. Augustine During the WWII Years.
The award-winning movie, The Green Book, is about Dr. Don Shirley, a mu-sical prodigy who traveled the South in the 1960s facing Jim Crow racism. Don Shirley’s father, the Rev. Edwin Shirley was an Episcopal priest who served this congregation of St. Cyprian’s 80 plus years ago. Fr. Edwin S. Shirley immigrated to America from Jamaica in 1914, and graduated from Howard University School of Divinity. He met and married Stella, a teacher, also from Jamaica, and became an Episcopal priest at St. Cyprian’s church in Pensacola, settling his family on beachfront property. Fr. Shirley’s son Maurice said that “At one time, he [Fr. Shirley] was the only Black man who owned a beach in the whole state of Florida.”
After serving at St. Cyprian’s in St. Augustine, Fr. Shirley moved to Ft. Lauderdale. After his retirement in 1964 (at the age of 78), he worked for the Economic Opportunity Coordinating Group in Broward County assist-ing the poor. "We are working hard to convince the people that being poor is no crime, but one can shake off poverty in many ways through being in-dustrious and thrifty," Fr. Shirley said during an interview in 1966. Of inter-est is that Fr. Shirley’s son, Edwin, Jr. was a physician in Miami, and was the personal doctor to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on his many visits to that city.
Our last Vespers service before the COVID shutdown was in February 2020, which seems like eons ago. Since it was Black History Month I shared some thoughts on the dark side of the Episcopal Church’s involvement in Black History. My remarks this morning build upon the reflections I made then, so I apologize if some of this is redundant. However, this is also about the Holy Spirit, how the Spirit has been at work in my life and the life of St. Cyprian’s … especially around the issue of race.
During Black History Month we laud men and women of color for their accomplishments and contributions … people like Fredrick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In the Episcopal Church there are also men and women that we celebrate, Absalom Jones, Peter Williams Cassey, Bishop Barbara Harris, and our current Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry. However, behind the individual stories of each of those outstanding people is the social, political, and church context which so often goes unmentioned. That context is the role that slavery, segregation, and racism has played in the life of this country … and in the life of the Episcopal Church. In that context the accomplishments and contributions of people of color only shine brighter … the challenges that they overcame magnifies the deeds that were achieved.
So, I share this information out of a certain amount of ignorance, naiveté, and with an awareness of my own white privilege. I am sure that there are other sources of information that are much more complete, and better articulated, but this is what I have to offer this morning.
As most of us who live here in St. Augustine know, Pedro Menendez brought slaves with him on his voyage which established our city. And, there were slaves on other voyages of Spanish and Portuguese explorers prior to 1565. But, the selling of slaves from Africa began in 1619 when twenty black people were sold at Point Comfort, a port near Jamestown, Virginia. Those Africans were most likely put to work in the tobacco fields that had recently been established in the area.
Around the world, forced labor was not uncommon at that time. Africans and Europeans had been trading goods and people across the Mediterranean for centuries. However, the trans-Atlantic slave trade introduced a system of slavery that was commercialized, racialized, and inherited. Enslaved people … Black Africans … were seen not as people at all, but as commodities to be bought, sold and exploited. The sale of these twenty African people set the course for what would become the institution of slavery in the United States.
The social, political, and church context for this is important. The slave trade flourished in the British colonies of what is now the United States … especially in the South. The political leaders in these colonies were also the leaders of commerce, and often the leaders in the Anglican Church. In the British colonies the Anglican Church was the “established” Church … to hold government office, men had to “belong” to the Church of England.
As the colonies moved toward declaring independence from England and the Revolutionary War, this became somewhat complicated, since Church of England membership required allegiance to the King of England. After the Revolutionary War the Anglican Church in this new nation formed as the Episcopal Church, but occupied the same buildings as they had prior to the war, and with prayers for our president, rather than the king. This new “Protestant Episcopal Church” lost many of those loyal to the crown in England, yet it was still a powerful entity.
So, this is the social, political, and church context of slavery at the time this nation was formed. Over two thirds of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Anglicans who became Episcopalians. And, over forty of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence were also slave owners. Fourteen of our presidents were slave owners before and/or during their presidency. In the South, a number of priests and bishops in the Episcopal Church also owned slaves. Yet, as powerful as the Episcopal Church was at that time, between 1792 and 1860 the Episcopal Church refused to take an official position for or against slavery, for fear of schism and from the idea that the church ought not to take any stands about secular or civil matters.
There were a few priests and bishops in the North who supported abolition, including Rev. E.M.P. Wells of Boston, Bishop Hopkins of Vermont, Bishop Whittingham of Maryland, and Bishop Phillips Brooks of Massachusetts. Yet, there were others who tried to justify both slavery and racism with reference to Holy Scripture, including Dr. Samuel Seabury, the first American Bishop … Bishop of Connecticut.
It was in that environment that grass root efforts by African Americans began to assert themselves. In 1786, Blacks and whites were worshipping together at St. George’s Methodist Church in Philadelphia. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones … two Black friends … were successful evangelists, bringing in so many African-Americans that the White parishioners of St. George’s became anxious. One Sunday, without warning, all Black worshippers were asked to move to the gallery. Absalom Jones and Richard Allen remained kneeling in prayer until ushers picked them up and removed them.
Absalom Jones and Richard Allen left St. George’s and formed the Free African Society, a mutual aid society for African Americans. Eventually Richard Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church … St. Paul AME down the street is part of that denomination … and Absalom Jones formed the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas. St. Thomas was the first black Episcopal Church in the United States.
In 1794 the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, built by the Free African Society, applied for membership in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania provided that, among other things, the church would have control over its own affairs, and that Absalom Jones could be licensed as a lay reader and eventually ordained. Abslaom Jones was ordained deacon in 1795 and priest in the Episcopal Church in 1802.
In 1808 St. Philip’s African Episcopal Church in New York City was founded by the Rev. Peter Williams, Jr., the second black person ordained in the Episcopal Church. The Rev. Peter Williams Cassey, Jr., the first Vicar of St. Cyprian’s from 1900 to 1917, was the grandson of the Rev. Peter Williams Jr.
Virginia Theological Seminary was founded in 1823 by several slaveholding men, including Francis Scott Key, who wrote the national anthem. Francis Scott Key, who was a United States attorney in the District of Columbia, so opposed emancipation that he criminally prosecuted journalists who supported abolition. Francis Scott Key and the other religious founders supported the American Colonization Society, which advocated sending freed slaves back to Africa … specifically to the country of Liberia.
Not only did Virginia Seminary use slave labor, but, after slavery ended, it refused admission of Black students until 1951. In 1841, slaves owned by a construction contractor built Aspinwall Hall, a red-brick building with a stately white tower, which served as classroom space for 150 years, and now houses the seminary’s administrative offices. In 2006, when the seminary’s archivist went looking for records of the school’s role in slavery, she also found that Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate, rented slaves to work at the seminary in 1850s, and that early professors and Virginia bishops also owned slaves.
Phillips Brooks from Boston, when he arrived at Virginia Seminary in 1856 wrote a letter home: “Of course there is nothing of the brutality of slavery here [at the Seminary], but the institution is degrading the country just as much. All the servants are slaves. Those in the seminary are let out by their masters for so much a year, paid of course to the master just as you’d pay for a horse hired.”
I received my Masters of Divinity at Virginia Theological Seminary in 1975. If something had been said during my seminary studies that there was a linkage to slavery I certainly don’t remember it. However, during the summer between my second and third years of seminary I worked at Sharon Chapel, a church within sight of the tower of Aspinwall Hall. Sharon Chapel was the seminary’s first fieldwork site for seminarians. It was as far from Virginia Seminary as one could ride on horseback, conduct services and visit shut-ins, and return to the seminary in one day.
Several years after graduation from Virginia Seminary I was called as the Rector of Sharon Chapel. In the vestibule of the church was a rather large portrait of Phillips Brooks … a reminder that he had served as a seminarian at Sharon Chapel before me. Phillips Brooks was the author of “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” and later became Rector of Trinity Church, Boston, then Bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts.
In 1980, while I was the Rector of Sharon Chapel, there was a political coup in the country of Liberia in western Africa. Liberia was the country where the American Colonization Society advocated the sending freed slaves. A Liberian Army officer had taken over the political leadership. He rounded up the President and his Cabinet and had them all shot. Only one member of the Cabinet escaped, the Attorney General name Clarence Simpson. Clarence Simpson and his family eventually settled in northern Virginia, and became members of Sharon Chapel.
In September of last year, more than a century after the last enslaved people labored on the Virginia Seminary’s campus, the seminary’s leaders announced plans to atone for that history. They created a $1.7 million reparations fund, becoming one of the first American institutions to allocate money specifically for the descendants of the enslaved. In the first two years of its existence, the Reparations Initiative has issued 17 payments to members of seven different families, awarded its first reparations grant to a historically Black Episcopal church, and uncovered hundreds of records that shed light on the Seminary’s history and connections to the larger institution of slavery in Alexandria and Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.
However, Virginia Seminary is not the only institution affiliated with the Episcopal Church to have a connection to slavery. Sewanee: The University of the South … was formed in 1857 by ten Southern dioceses in the Episcopal Church including the Diocese of Florida. The new University of the South was the only institution of higher education in this nation designed from the start to represent, protect, and promote the South’s civilization of bondage … the beloved “land of the sun and the slave,” as its founders called the region they laid claim to educating and defending. Other universities from Virginia west to Texas had been built in a slaveholding society. Only the University of the South was created expressly for the slaveholding society of the South.
A primary justification for Sewanee’s founding asserted that the white men of the South were positioned better than any other to make the highest contributions to world civilization because slavery allowed them to devote themselves to higher attainments. The organizational blueprint for the institution indicates the founders envisioned the University as a leading center of scientific scholarship proving white racial superiority and the “aptitude” of people of African descent for enslavement.
By the way, this description of the founding of Sewanee comes from a report of the Roberson Project commissioned and supported by the University.
During this Black History Month it seems somehow appropriate to face the sins of the Episcopal Church around this issue of slavery, Jim Crow, and its consequences. St. Cyprian’s is an Historical Black Church. St. Cyprian’s is one of those Episcopal churches that was built by those African Americans living under the oppression of the brutal segregation of the Jim Crow era. We need to celebrate those who founded and built this church … our spiritual ancestors in this sacred space. Yet even that has a dark side. St. Cyprian’s was built so that Black Episcopalians would have a place to worship, and they wouldn’t bother the white Episcopalians at Trinity Parish downtown. Today we … St. Cyprian’s … a Historical Black Church … are a mostly White congregation … having gotten here by White privilege.
All that being said, I somehow feel the Holy Spirit is at work in all this. The genesis of this sermon was in August 2019 when I read the first installment in the New York Times series, “The 1619 Project.” This series … and a subsequent book by the same title … looks at the impact of slavery in our nation’s history, beginning with the first boatload of twenty slaves landing at Point Comfort, Virginia in 1619 … over four hundred years ago.
Then, in September of 2019, came the news that Virginia Theological Seminary was setting up an endowment for reparations to atone for its involvement in slavery. I thought then that I needed to remember that for Black History Month. And then the coincidences … shall I say … synchronistic events … the work of the Holy Spirit … started to add up.
- The realization that Phillips Brooks, while a seminary student serving at a church where I would later become the Rector, was an abolitionist living and studying in an environment surrounded by slaves.
- Francis Scott Key, a founder of Virginia Seminary, was also a strong advocate for repatriating slaves back to Africa in the country of Liberia … and the former Secretary of State of Liberia was a parishioner when I served at the church where Phillips Brooks once served.
- During the Yellow Fever epidemics in Philadelphia in the 1790s, Absalom Jones, the first African American to be ordained priest in the Episcopal Church, assisted Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Dr. Benjamin Rush provided significant funds for the building of the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas. Chris Mason, a long-time member of our congregation and Chair of our Altar Guild, is a direct descendant of Dr. Benjamin Rush.
- The second African American to be ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church was Peter Williams, Jr., the grandfather of Peter Williams Cassey, Jr., the first Vicar of this congregation … St. Cyprian’s … from 1900 until his death in 1917.
- Interestingly, although Peter Williams Cassey, Jr. was the first African American to be ordained in the Episcopal Church west of the Mississippi, he was ordained a deacon, and he was never ordained to the priesthood because of the Jim Crow environment in the southern Episcopal churches including the Diocese of Florida.
- Finally, the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry … our current Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, who is Black … once again has invited all of us during this Black History Month to remember the two remaining Historic Black Colleges affiliated with the Episcopal Church … St. Augustine’s in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Voorhees College in Denmark, South Carolina. Saint Augustine’s University, and Voorhees College were founded after the Civil War to create educational opportunities for formerly enslaved people.
- When I was Rector of St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Wake Forest, North Carolina … which is now a suburb of Raleigh … I was invited to lecture at St. Augustine’s, named after the same saint for which this town is named. And I think it is obvious that there is some connection to Voorhees College … if only by name.
Something tells me that the Holy Spirit is at work in this. I’m really not sure how … or even why … it is happening, but I am open to following wherever this may lead. And we have already started on that journey. In the spring of 2020 a small group of parishioners … curious about the Civil Rights protest in St. Augustine … forma Zoom book study of “If It Takes All Summer.” That group has grown significantly and is now St. Cyprian’s Racial Justice Initiative.
This is the Feast of Absalom Jones, the first Black priest in the Episcopal Church. We celebrate this day in the midst of Black History Month. I do know that when seen through the social, political, and church context of this nation’s history, the accomplishments and contributions of Black Americans … and Black Episcopalians … shine bright.
I end with a prayer:
Set us free, heavenly Father, from every bond of prejudice and fear; that, honoring the steadfast courage of Rev. Absalom Jones, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Rev. Peter William Cassey, Rosa Parks, Dr. Robert B. Hayling, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and all the Black men and women in the history of our nation, we may show forth in our lives the reconciling love and true freedom of the children of God, which you have given us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Amen.
PRESIDING BISHOP INVITES GIFTS TO ABSALOM JONES FUND FOR EPISCOPAL HBCUS
Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry invites people of all backgrounds and faiths to support the hope-filled, life-impacting work of two historically Black institutions of higher education through donations and dedicated offerings on the Feast of Absalom Jones—the first Black priest ordained by the church—observed February 13.
The full message is available. To make a donation, please visit The Episcopal Church website.
REVISED ABSALOM JONES BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
By Arthur K. Sudler, William Carl Bolivar Director, Historical Society & Archives, African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas
Absalom Jones was born enslaved to Abraham Wynkoop a wealthy Anglican planter in 1746 in Delaware. He was working in the fields when Abraham recognized that he was an intelligent child and ordered that he be trained to work in the house. Absalom eagerly accepted instruction in reading. He also saved money he was given and bought books (among them a primer, a spelling book, and a bible). Abraham Wynkoop died in 1753 and by 1755 his younger son Benjamin had inherited the plantation. When Absalom was sixteen Benjamin Wynkoop sold the plantation and Absalom’s mother, sister, and five brothers. Wynkoop brought Absalom to Philadelphia where he opened a store and joined St. Peter’s Church. In Philadelphia Benjamin Wynkoop permitted Absalom to attend a night school for black people that was operated by Quakers following the tradition established by abolitionist teacher Anthony Benezet.
At twenty, with the permission of their masters, Absalom married Mary Thomas who was enslaved to Sarah King who also worshipped at St. Peter’s. The Rev. Jacob Duche performed the wedding at Christ Church. Absalom and his father-in-law, John Thomas, used their savings, and sought donations and loans primarily from prominent Quakers, in order to purchase Mary’s freedom. Absalom and Mary worked very hard to repay the money borrowed to buy her freedom. They saved enough money to buy property and to buy Absalom’s freedom. Although he repeatedly asked Benjamin Wynkoop to allow him to buy his freedom Wynkoop refused. Absalom persisted because as long as he was enslaved Wynkoop could take his property and his money. Finally, in 1784 Benjamin Wynkoop freed Absalom by granting him a manumission. Absalom continued to work in Wynkoop’s store as a paid employee.
Absalom left St. Peter’s Church and began worshipping at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church. He met Richard Allen who had been engaged to preach at St. George’s and the two became lifelong friends, Together, in 1787, they founded the Free African Society a mutual aid benevolent organization that was the first of its kind organized by and for black people. Members of the Society paid monthly dues for the benefit of those in need. At St George’s, Absalom and Richard served as lay ministers for the black membership. The active evangelism of Jones and Allen, greatly increased black membership at St George’s. The black members worked hard to help raise money to build an upstairs gallery intended to enlarge the church. The church leadership decided to segregate the black worshippers in the gallery, without notifying them. During a Sunday morning service a dispute arose over the seats black members had been instructed to take in the gallery and ushers attempted to physically remove them by first accosting Absalom Jones. Most of the black members present indignantly walked out of St. George’s in a body.
Prior to the incident at St. George’s the Free African Society had initiated religious services. Some of these services were presided over by The Rev. Joseph Pilmore an assistant St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. The Society established communication with similar black groups in other cities. In 1792 the Society began to build the African Church of Philadelphia. The church membership took a denominational vote and decided to affiliate with the Episcopal Church. Richard Allen withdrew from the effort as he favored affiliation with the Methodist Church. Absalom Jones was asked to provide pastoral leadership and after prayer and reflection he accepted the call.
The African Church was dedicated on July 17, 1794. The Rev. Dr. Samuel Magaw, rector St. Paul’s Church, preached the dedicatory address. Dr. Magaw was assisted at the service by The Rev. James Abercrombie, assistant minister at Christ Church. Soon thereafter the congregation applied for membership in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania on the following conditions: 1) that they be received as an organized body; 2) that they have control over their own local affairs; 3) that Absalom Jones be licensed as layreader, and, if qualified, be ordained as minister. In October 1794 it was admitted as the African Episcopal Church of St Thomas. The church was incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1796. Bishop William White ordained Jones as deacon in 1795 and as priest on September 21, 1802.
Jones was an earnest preacher. He denounced slavery, and warned the oppressors to “clean their hands of slaves.” To him, God was the Father, who always acted on “behalf of the oppressed and distressed.” But it was his constant visiting and mild manner that made him beloved by his congregation and by the community. St Thomas Church grew to over 500 members during its first year. The congregants formed a day school and were active in moral uplift, self-empowerment, and anti-slavery activities. Known as “the Black Bishop of the Episcopal Church,” Jones was an example of persistent faith in God and in the Church as God’s instrument. Jones died on this day in 1818.
Absalom's autobiographical sketch from Douglass' Annals (1862):
ABSALOM JONES AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH/ANNALS*
The following narrative is copied from the original manuscript written by himself:
“I, Absalom Jones was born in Sussex,” DEL., “on the 6th of November, 1746. I was small, when my master took me from the field to wait and attend on him in the house; and being very fond of learning, I was careful to save the pennies that were given to me by the ladies and gentlemen from time to time. I soon bought myself a primer, and begged to be taught by any body that I found able and willing to give me the least instruction. Soon after this, I was able to purchase a spelling book; for as my money increased, I supplied myself with books, among others, a Testament. For, fondness for books, gave me little or no time for the amusements that took up the leisure hours of my companions. By this course I became singular, and escaped many evils, and also saved my money.
In the year 1762, my mother, five brothers and a sister were sold, and I was brought to the city of Philadelphia with my master. My employment in this city was to wait in the store, pack up and carry out goods. In this situation, I had an opportunity, with the clerk, to get copies set for me; so that I was soon able to write to my mother and brothers, with my own hand. My spelling is bad for want of proper schooling.
In the year 1766, I asked my master the liberty of going one quarter to night-school, which he granted. I had a great desire to learn Arithmetic. In that quarter I learned Addition, Troy weight, Subtraction, Apothecaries’ weight, Practical multiplication, Practical Division, and Reduction.
In the year 1770, I married a wife who was a slave. I soon after proposed to purchase her freedom. To this her mistress agreed, for the sum of forty pounds. Not having the money in hand, I got an appeal drawn, and John Thomas, my father-in-law, and I called upon some of the principal Friends of this city. From some we borrowed, and from other we received donations. In this way we soon raised thirty pounds of the money, her mistress, Sarah King, forgiving the balance of ten pounds. By this time, my master’s family was increased, and I was much hurried in my servitude. However, I took a house, and for seven years, made it my business to work until twelve or one o’clock at night, to assist my wife in obtaining a livelihood, and to pay the money that was borrowed to purchase her freedom.
This being fully accomplished, and having a little money in hand, I made application to my master, in the year 1778, to purchase my own freedom; but, as this was not granted, I fortunately met with a small house and lot of ground, to be sold for one hundred and fifty pounds, continental money. Having laid by some hard money, I sold it for continental and purchased the lot. My desire for freedom increased, as I knew that while I was a slave, my house and lot might be taken as the property of my master. This induced me to make many applications to him for liberty to purchase my freedom; and on the first of October, 1784, he generously gave me a manumission. I have ever since continued in his service at good wages, and I still find it my duty, both late and early, to be industrious to improve the little estate that a kind Providence has put in my hands.
Since my freedom, I have built a couple of small houses on the small lot, which now let for twenty-two pounds a year.”
Douglass, W. (1862). Annals of the first African church, in the United States of America: now styled the African Episcopal church of St. Thomas, Philadelphia, in its connection with the early struggles of the colored people to improve their condition, with the co-operation of the Friends, and other philanthropists; partly derived from the minutes of a beneficial society, established by Absalom Jones, Richard Allen and others, in 1787, and partly from the minutes of the aforesaid church. Philadelphia: King & Baird, printers.
THE REV. PETER WILLIAMS CASSEY, JR.
Peter William Cassey was born in 1831 to a prominent family of abolitionists living in the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia. As a young man, he moved to California where he founded the first secondary school in the state for Blacks. He also founded St. Phillip’s Church, the first place of worship for Black Episcopalians in California. In 1866 he was ordained a Deacon in the Episcopal Church and served congregations in California, North Carolina, and Florida. The Rev. Fr. Peter William Cassey became St. Cyprian’s first fulltime Vicar in 1901 (a year after the consecration of our church sanctuary) and served until his death in 1917. Sadly, the Rev. Fr. Peter William Cassey was never allowed to be ordained a priest, even though Bishop Weed of the Diocese of Florida said “he was more learned in Greek, Latin and theology” than most of the White clergy. The institutional racism of the time was so pervasive that few were able to challenge these set patterns in the Church ... especially in the South. The brass plaque near the door to the church honors the Rev. Fr. P. W. Cassey. On Sunday April 23, 2017 St. Cyprian’s celebrated the 150th anniversary of Rev. Fr. P. W. Cassey’s ordination, and the 100th anniversary of his death. Rev. Cassey is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in St. Augustine.
FATHER EDWIN S. SHIRLEY 1885 – 1982
Vicar of St. Cyprian’s, St. Augustine During the WWII Years.
The award-winning movie, The Green Book, is about Dr. Don Shirley, a mu-sical prodigy who traveled the South in the 1960s facing Jim Crow racism. Don Shirley’s father, the Rev. Edwin Shirley was an Episcopal priest who served this congregation of St. Cyprian’s 80 plus years ago. Fr. Edwin S. Shirley immigrated to America from Jamaica in 1914, and graduated from Howard University School of Divinity. He met and married Stella, a teacher, also from Jamaica, and became an Episcopal priest at St. Cyprian’s church in Pensacola, settling his family on beachfront property. Fr. Shirley’s son Maurice said that “At one time, he [Fr. Shirley] was the only Black man who owned a beach in the whole state of Florida.”
After serving at St. Cyprian’s in St. Augustine, Fr. Shirley moved to Ft. Lauderdale. After his retirement in 1964 (at the age of 78), he worked for the Economic Opportunity Coordinating Group in Broward County assist-ing the poor. "We are working hard to convince the people that being poor is no crime, but one can shake off poverty in many ways through being in-dustrious and thrifty," Fr. Shirley said during an interview in 1966. Of inter-est is that Fr. Shirley’s son, Edwin, Jr. was a physician in Miami, and was the personal doctor to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on his many visits to that city.
