Absalom Jones (1746 – February 13, 1818) was an African-American abolitionist and clergyman. After founding a black congregation in 1794, in 1804 he was the first African-American ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church of the United States. He is listed on the Episcopal calendar of saints and blessed under the date of his decease, February 13, in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer as "Absalom Jones, Priest, 1818". Jones was born into slavery in Delaware in 1746. When he was sixteen, he was sold to a storeowner in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While still a slave of Mr. Wynkoop, he married Mary King, another slave, on January 4, 1770. By 1778 he had purchased his wife's freedom so that their children would be free, and in another seven years he was able to purchase his own. 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

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  Now available in the career center #scholarship file: Absalom Jones Scholarship Fund, deadline 4/6/2012
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  @historianspeaks Same here! I like this articulation. We've been discussing this after a class debate on Absalom Jones' 1/1/1808 sermon.
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  RT @CathedralNYC: Today we honor Harlem icon Dr. Thelma C. Davidson Adair at our Absalom Jones Evensong in the Great Choir of The Cathedral Church at 1:55pm.