Calendar of Saints: Absalom Jones

Periodically I post a quote from a saint from the Episcopal Calendar of Saints that week. I connect it with a picture that I have taken as a kind of poster. These are meant to be meditative and mindful, playful and thought inducing. I hope they are helpful in your spiritual journeys.

Absalom Jones (1746 - 1818)
Abolitionist and Priest
February 13

Born into slavery then granted his freedom, Jones became a lay minister at 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 1772, while at St. George's Methodist Church, Absalom Jones and other black members were told that they could not join the rest of the congregation in seating and kneeling on the first floor and instead had to be segregated first sitting against the wall and then on the balcony. After completing their prayer, Jones and the church's black members got up and walked out.

As 1791 began, Rev. Jones started holding religious services at the Free African Society, which the following year became the core of his African Church in Philadelphia. Jones wanted to establish a black congregation independent of white control, while remaining part of the Episcopal Church. After a successful petition, the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, the first black church in Philadelphia, opened its doors on July 17, 1794. Jones was ordained as a deacon in 1795 and as a priest in 1804, became the first African-American priest in the Episcopal Church.

Famous for his oratory, Jones helped establish the tradition of anti-slavery sermons on New Year's Day. His sermon for January 1, 1808, the date on which the U.S. Constitution mandated the end of the African slave trade, called A Thanksgiving Sermon was published in pamphlet-form and became famous. [Note: The words above were part of a hymn written by Michael Fortune and used for the occasion.] Nonetheless, rumors persisted that Rev. Jones possessed supernatural abilities to influence the minds of assembled congregations. White observers failed to recognize his oratory skills, perhaps because they believed rhetoric to be beyond the capabilities of black people. Numerous other African-American leaders faced similar rumors of supernatural activities.

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Calendar of Saints: Harriet Beecher Stowe (2)

Twice a week I post a quote from a saint from the Episcopal Calendar of Saints that week. They are to be meditative and mindful, playful and thought inducing. I hope they are helpful in your spiritual journeys.


Harriet Beecher Stowe
Writer and Prophetic Witness
July 1

Harriet Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut on June 14, 1811. She was the daughter of outspoken religious leader Lyman Beecher and Roxana Foote, a deeply religious woman who died when Stowe was four years old. She was the sister of the educator and author, Catharine Beecher, clergymen Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Beecher, and Edward Beecher.

Harriet enrolled in the seminary run by her eldest sister Catharine, where she received a traditionally "male" education. At the age of 21, she moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to join her father, who had become the president of Lane Theological Seminary, and in 1836 she married Calvin Ellis Stowe, a professor at the seminary and an ardent critic of slavery. The Stowes supported the Underground Railroad and housed several fugitive slaves in their home. They eventually moved to Brunswick, Maine, where Calvin taught at Bowdoin College.

In 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law, prohibiting assistance to fugitives. Stowe was moved to present her objections on paper, and in June 1851, the first installment of Uncle Tom's Cabin appeared in the antislavery journal National Era. The 40-year-old mother of seven children sparked a national debate and, as Abraham Lincoln is said to have noted, a war. Stowe died on July 1, 1896, at age eighty-five, in Hartford, Connecticut.



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Calendar of Saints: Harriet Beecher Stowe (1)

Twice a week I post a quote from a saint from the Episcopal Calendar of Saints that week. They are to be meditative and mindful, playful and thought inducing. I hope they are helpful in your spiritual journeys.


Harriet Beecher Stowe
Writer and Prophetic Witness
July 1

Harriet Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American abolitionist and author. Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) depicted life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom and made the political issues of the 1850s regarding slavery tangible to millions, energizing anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South. Upon meeting Stowe, Abraham Lincoln allegedly remarked, "So you're the little lady who started this great war!" The quote is regarded as apocryphal.

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All The Different Things

Every day has quite a list of "historical" events that have happened on that day. Every now and then I like to skim them for things that tickle my fancy. So I did. Here, then, for the last day of January is a list of just six that I thought were either interesting, funny, or work noting.


~~These first two show the wonder of hypocritical thinking that is at the heart of any country's politics.

1865 - Congress passes 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in America (121-24)
1876 - The United States orders all Native Americans to move into reservations.

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~~This next one just kind of took me to levels of ridiculous or sublime. I guess it makes some sense. Somewhere.

1927 - NL Pres John Heydler rules Rogers Hornsby can't hold stock in the Cardinals and play for the Giants

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~~I have been doing work on the late 50s and this one reminded me of the launch of Sputnik just a few months earlier with which the Soviet Union was the first to get a satellite into orbit. We finally made it on Jan 31, almost 4 months later.

1958 - US launches their 1st artificial satellite, Explorer 1

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~~The Vietnam war. The US was shocked, caught flat-footed when the Tet offensive began. I remember one of my fellow students in college running around commenting that this was the beginning of the end for the US war in Vietnam. he was right but it took a few more years.

1968 - Viet Cong Tet offensive begins

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~~This last one is only 21 years ago. What a difference a decade or two makes.

1994 - Dow Jones hits a record 3,978.36

So remember- today's headline might just be history in the making.