Cathedral of ST. John the Divine HOSTS

A Celebration of Blessed Absalom Jones

Saturday, February 7th, 2015

10:30 a.m.

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Avenue (at 112th Street), Manhattan

The Bishop of New York, the Cathedral community and the Episcopal Diocese of New York will join together for a Eucharist honoring the life and work of Blessed Absalom Jones, featuring a sermon by The Reverend Kelly Brown Douglas, Professor of Religion at Goucher College, on Saturday, February 7th, 2015 at 10:30 a.m. at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue (at 112th Street).

Absalom Jones, born a slave in Delaware in 1746, was the first African-American ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church. Having bought his own freedom in 1784, he became a lay minister serving the Black membership of St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Absalom Jones was ordained deacon in 1795 and priest in 1802 of the St. Thomas African Episcopal Church.

Kelly Brown Douglas is a leader in the area of womanist theology as well as Professor and Director of the Religion Program at Goucher College, where she held the Elizabeth Conolly Todd Distinguished Professorship from 2006 to 2012.  Douglas is considered one of the country’s most distinguished religious thinkers and educators.

This service is open and welcoming to all, in commemoration of Jones’s perseverance against exclusion, intolerance and oppression.