| Calvary Episcopal Church, Rockdale x SERMON 6 Epiphany February 11, 2007 x The Rev. Robert C. Granfeldt |
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On our Monthly visits to Fair Acres nursing home, I like to speak, in my homily, about whoever
is being commemorated that day in our wonderful little resource book, Lesser Feasts and
Fasts, that contains the stories of many, many people other than the great saints of the Church
we all know, who have been important to the Faith and to the Church.
Last Tuesday I cheated a bit by jumping forward a week to this Tuesday’s commemoration of a
man who is well worth remembering – since I won’t be with them, then. But as usual, what I
wound up talking about was really more about who we are, rather than about him – who we
Episcopalians are and where we’ve come from; who we Americans are.
I know there are some who don’t care much for my habit of talking about historical matters, but
we do need to talk about them, because they have so much to say about who we are. And our
failure to do that even more, I’m afraid, is one of the unfortunate aspects of who we in fact are!
The man I spoke about last Tuesday, and the man we’ll remember officially in our Church
Calendar next Tuesday, was a man from right here in this southeast corner of Pennsylvania –
Philadelphia to be precise! Actually, he was born in the Colony of Delaware in the year 1746, but
he lived his life, here.
Like so many in those times, he never went to school, as a child; but he taught himself to read,
also like so many others, from the New Testament, and the few other books he managed to get
access to. Then, when he was 16, his life changed forever when he was sold to a store owner in
Philadelphia, and spent the rest of his life there! He was black, you see, and he was born a
slave!
In Philly, he attended a Quaker night school that existed just for the likes of him – an advantage
he had over slaves in most of the new Nation, and at twenty he fell in love with, and married,
another slave – managing, soon, to buy her freedom with money he had earned on the side –
which was yet another privilege he unknown to slaves elsewhere. It took him another 18 years
to save enough money to buy his own freedom, but he finally managed that, too – at age 38!
By that time he had grown into a devout Christian, worshipping at St. George’s Methodist
Episcopal Church (a then-new denomination, now the Methodist Church, formed only in 1760)
serving with a friend, Richard Allen, as lay ministers to black people. With his and Allen’s work,
the Church attracted a lot of black folks, which fact eventually became a problem – to the
whites!
One day in 1786, right in the midst of the opening prayer of worship, the white ushers began
tapping blacks on the shoulder and telling them they had to move up into the balcony: a
decision had been made that henceforth the main floor of the Church was to be “whites only!”
The two men got up and, all the blacks following walked out the door!
The next year the Free African Society was formed, with the two men as their elected
overseers. Dedicating its own, new church building on July 17, 1794, the African Church, as it
was called, petitioned the newly also created Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania and it’s
Bishop, William White, to be admitted to the Episcopal Church and to the Diocese. But they didn’
t just ask to be admitted; rather they set three conditions: first, that they be admitted as one,
organized body; second, that they were to have control over their own, local affairs; and third -
though Mr. Allen decided to remain a Methodist – that their founding leader be licensed as a lay
reader to lead worship, and, if later found to be qualified, be ordained.
In October, 1794, they were admitted as St. Thomas African Episcopal Church; and on
September 21, 1802, their beloved leader, Absalom Jones, born a slave in Delaware Colony 56
years before, was ordained a Priest – the first black Priest of the Episcopal Church and the first
black man to be ordained in ANY Church in the New World! And he served his people and his
Church, a great preacher, teacher and leader, until he died in his 72nd year – on February 13,
1818.
I’ve spoken to you about Absalom Jones, before. But all Episcopalians should know about the
man – should know his name and his history – though few, I’m afraid, do. Yet he was a great and
courageous man, and an important one, such that not only all Episcopalians should know about
him but all Americans!
Bishop William White, who ordained him was a great man, as well, and an important one, too.
And the Church that welcomed and ordained him – the Episcopal Church in the United States –
was a great and important Church, as well!
This is the kind of thing we tend to forget about – and shouldn’t; the kind of thing we so seldom
talk about – and should: our history!
The Episcopal Church has always been quite a small Church in America – largely, I believe, for
various, historical reasons. In the decades before the Revolution, we were dependent on a
foreign Church for ordination – a “mother” Church that refused to supply us with so much as a
single Bishop, instead making our postulants travel – at great cost, including many lives lost to
the voyages – across the sea for ordination, meaning we started our independent life with a
huge clergy shortage!
After the Revolution, we were suspect because of our historic relationship with the established
Church of England. We had to lay low for some years until we could reorganize as a new and
independent Church – and still we weren’t trusted.
Yet, however small we may have been, however much we were mistrusted – the people of this
nation have always looked to our people, our members, with great respect – and, indeed, have
depended on us for leadership! Thus a Church with less than two percent of the nation’s
population has supplied more of the nation’s leadership than any other Church: over 26% of its
Presidents and Vice Presidents; more than 30% of the nation’s Supreme Court Justices; and
more Senators, by far, than any other!
And our Church, itself, has led the nation, as well, in many ways! We’ve already seen how, in
Absalom Jones we were the first Church in the Americas to ordain to its clergy not only a black
person, but ANY non-white person. 80 years later we were likewise the first to ordain a native-
American, in David Oakerhater – whose life is also commemorated in Lesser Feasts and Fasts!
In the meantime, of course, we were the only national church to survive the slavery disputes
and the civil war without schism – while some other Churches, like the Baptists, have never yet
healed their split!
In 1909, Christ Church, Detroit – the oldest Church in the State of Michigan – was the first
Church of any kind to hire professional staff to minister to an influx of IMMIGRANTS to the
neighborhood – a group of Syrian men, far from home – to settle them, to find them jobs, to help
them learn English and to welcome them into their pews! (This is a first I know about,
personally, having served my Curacy at Christ Church – an Episcopal Church Unique in
counting, still today, half its members as of Syrian extraction or birth!)
In 1935, The Rev. Samuel Shoemaker was instrumental, through his relationship with, and
support for one of his parishioners – a man now known as “Dr. Bob” – in the establishment of
Alcoholics Anonymous, and Episcopal Parishes have provided homes to A.A. groups all over
the country – just as we do – ever since!
In 1974 – back, again, in this Diocese – four women were ordained Priests, the first in the whole,
2000 year catholic tradition, beginning a movement that continues to sweep the world. And in
1989 yet another Priest of this Diocese became the world’s first female Bishop in the Apostolic
Succession – and a black one, at that!
In November of 2003, The Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson became the first openly gay person in
history to be ordained a Bishop.
And last November, just three years later, our Church ordained a woman to be its national,
Presiding Bishop Kathryn Jefferts Schori – once more the first woman to attain such an office in
2000 years!
Each of those ordinations – from Jones to Schori – has caused great consternation in the
Church and beyond, and each has cost us some members! But in each case our Church
persevered; in each case our Church did as she believed right; and in each case our Church
has led!
And what’s more, each of those cases – each of those “firsts” I’ve listed – have involved issues
of justice! Instances where injustice cried out to be countered, and where justice called to us
to act! And act we did. For more than two centuries, in so many ways, we have led this nation,
and even this world, in issues of justice – responding as few have to the call of the Prophet
Amos to “let Justice roll down like the waters! And righteousness like a never-ending flood!
Against this background, I would be less than forthcoming, if I did not admit to you, this
morning, that there is someplace else I would much rather be this morning.
I would love, instead, to be at the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas on Lancaster Ave, in
Overbrook – that same Parish founded by Absalom Jones, now in its 213th year – as its people
celebrate the commemoration of their great founder, being led in their worship by Presiding
Bishop Kathryn!
What a wonderful bookending of history that event – going on at this moment, not ten miles
from here – must be!
But I’m here. I’m here, not just because it’s my job to be here, but because we have work to do.
In the years I’ve been with you, we have spoken much about our need to grow not only as
people – which is our primary task as Christians and as the Church – but to grow, as well, in
parish numbers. In fact, the whole Episcopal Church is faced with that same need to grow.
And it has long seemed to me that one of the reasons our beloved Episcopal Church does not
grow – one of the reasons our Church continues to be less than 2% of this nation – is that we
the members, we Episcopalians, don’t realize what we’ve got in this great Church; don’t realize
who we are! We suffer, it seems, from a built-in inferiority complex that is quite possibly the
least deserved in all of Christendom! And that’s a part of who we are that needs to change!
We do need to grow this parish and this Church. And I think a good step we ought to take in our
own hearts and minds is to recognize what we already are and already have as one small part of
the finest Church in Christendom - and proudly claim our place while we reach out to others,
inviting them to join us!
In the Name of the One we serve, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen
is being commemorated that day in our wonderful little resource book, Lesser Feasts and
Fasts, that contains the stories of many, many people other than the great saints of the Church
we all know, who have been important to the Faith and to the Church.
Last Tuesday I cheated a bit by jumping forward a week to this Tuesday’s commemoration of a
man who is well worth remembering – since I won’t be with them, then. But as usual, what I
wound up talking about was really more about who we are, rather than about him – who we
Episcopalians are and where we’ve come from; who we Americans are.
I know there are some who don’t care much for my habit of talking about historical matters, but
we do need to talk about them, because they have so much to say about who we are. And our
failure to do that even more, I’m afraid, is one of the unfortunate aspects of who we in fact are!
The man I spoke about last Tuesday, and the man we’ll remember officially in our Church
Calendar next Tuesday, was a man from right here in this southeast corner of Pennsylvania –
Philadelphia to be precise! Actually, he was born in the Colony of Delaware in the year 1746, but
he lived his life, here.
Like so many in those times, he never went to school, as a child; but he taught himself to read,
also like so many others, from the New Testament, and the few other books he managed to get
access to. Then, when he was 16, his life changed forever when he was sold to a store owner in
Philadelphia, and spent the rest of his life there! He was black, you see, and he was born a
slave!
In Philly, he attended a Quaker night school that existed just for the likes of him – an advantage
he had over slaves in most of the new Nation, and at twenty he fell in love with, and married,
another slave – managing, soon, to buy her freedom with money he had earned on the side –
which was yet another privilege he unknown to slaves elsewhere. It took him another 18 years
to save enough money to buy his own freedom, but he finally managed that, too – at age 38!
By that time he had grown into a devout Christian, worshipping at St. George’s Methodist
Episcopal Church (a then-new denomination, now the Methodist Church, formed only in 1760)
serving with a friend, Richard Allen, as lay ministers to black people. With his and Allen’s work,
the Church attracted a lot of black folks, which fact eventually became a problem – to the
whites!
One day in 1786, right in the midst of the opening prayer of worship, the white ushers began
tapping blacks on the shoulder and telling them they had to move up into the balcony: a
decision had been made that henceforth the main floor of the Church was to be “whites only!”
The two men got up and, all the blacks following walked out the door!
The next year the Free African Society was formed, with the two men as their elected
overseers. Dedicating its own, new church building on July 17, 1794, the African Church, as it
was called, petitioned the newly also created Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania and it’s
Bishop, William White, to be admitted to the Episcopal Church and to the Diocese. But they didn’
t just ask to be admitted; rather they set three conditions: first, that they be admitted as one,
organized body; second, that they were to have control over their own, local affairs; and third -
though Mr. Allen decided to remain a Methodist – that their founding leader be licensed as a lay
reader to lead worship, and, if later found to be qualified, be ordained.
In October, 1794, they were admitted as St. Thomas African Episcopal Church; and on
September 21, 1802, their beloved leader, Absalom Jones, born a slave in Delaware Colony 56
years before, was ordained a Priest – the first black Priest of the Episcopal Church and the first
black man to be ordained in ANY Church in the New World! And he served his people and his
Church, a great preacher, teacher and leader, until he died in his 72nd year – on February 13,
1818.
I’ve spoken to you about Absalom Jones, before. But all Episcopalians should know about the
man – should know his name and his history – though few, I’m afraid, do. Yet he was a great and
courageous man, and an important one, such that not only all Episcopalians should know about
him but all Americans!
Bishop William White, who ordained him was a great man, as well, and an important one, too.
And the Church that welcomed and ordained him – the Episcopal Church in the United States –
was a great and important Church, as well!
This is the kind of thing we tend to forget about – and shouldn’t; the kind of thing we so seldom
talk about – and should: our history!
The Episcopal Church has always been quite a small Church in America – largely, I believe, for
various, historical reasons. In the decades before the Revolution, we were dependent on a
foreign Church for ordination – a “mother” Church that refused to supply us with so much as a
single Bishop, instead making our postulants travel – at great cost, including many lives lost to
the voyages – across the sea for ordination, meaning we started our independent life with a
huge clergy shortage!
After the Revolution, we were suspect because of our historic relationship with the established
Church of England. We had to lay low for some years until we could reorganize as a new and
independent Church – and still we weren’t trusted.
Yet, however small we may have been, however much we were mistrusted – the people of this
nation have always looked to our people, our members, with great respect – and, indeed, have
depended on us for leadership! Thus a Church with less than two percent of the nation’s
population has supplied more of the nation’s leadership than any other Church: over 26% of its
Presidents and Vice Presidents; more than 30% of the nation’s Supreme Court Justices; and
more Senators, by far, than any other!
And our Church, itself, has led the nation, as well, in many ways! We’ve already seen how, in
Absalom Jones we were the first Church in the Americas to ordain to its clergy not only a black
person, but ANY non-white person. 80 years later we were likewise the first to ordain a native-
American, in David Oakerhater – whose life is also commemorated in Lesser Feasts and Fasts!
In the meantime, of course, we were the only national church to survive the slavery disputes
and the civil war without schism – while some other Churches, like the Baptists, have never yet
healed their split!
In 1909, Christ Church, Detroit – the oldest Church in the State of Michigan – was the first
Church of any kind to hire professional staff to minister to an influx of IMMIGRANTS to the
neighborhood – a group of Syrian men, far from home – to settle them, to find them jobs, to help
them learn English and to welcome them into their pews! (This is a first I know about,
personally, having served my Curacy at Christ Church – an Episcopal Church Unique in
counting, still today, half its members as of Syrian extraction or birth!)
In 1935, The Rev. Samuel Shoemaker was instrumental, through his relationship with, and
support for one of his parishioners – a man now known as “Dr. Bob” – in the establishment of
Alcoholics Anonymous, and Episcopal Parishes have provided homes to A.A. groups all over
the country – just as we do – ever since!
In 1974 – back, again, in this Diocese – four women were ordained Priests, the first in the whole,
2000 year catholic tradition, beginning a movement that continues to sweep the world. And in
1989 yet another Priest of this Diocese became the world’s first female Bishop in the Apostolic
Succession – and a black one, at that!
In November of 2003, The Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson became the first openly gay person in
history to be ordained a Bishop.
And last November, just three years later, our Church ordained a woman to be its national,
Presiding Bishop Kathryn Jefferts Schori – once more the first woman to attain such an office in
2000 years!
Each of those ordinations – from Jones to Schori – has caused great consternation in the
Church and beyond, and each has cost us some members! But in each case our Church
persevered; in each case our Church did as she believed right; and in each case our Church
has led!
And what’s more, each of those cases – each of those “firsts” I’ve listed – have involved issues
of justice! Instances where injustice cried out to be countered, and where justice called to us
to act! And act we did. For more than two centuries, in so many ways, we have led this nation,
and even this world, in issues of justice – responding as few have to the call of the Prophet
Amos to “let Justice roll down like the waters! And righteousness like a never-ending flood!
Against this background, I would be less than forthcoming, if I did not admit to you, this
morning, that there is someplace else I would much rather be this morning.
I would love, instead, to be at the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas on Lancaster Ave, in
Overbrook – that same Parish founded by Absalom Jones, now in its 213th year – as its people
celebrate the commemoration of their great founder, being led in their worship by Presiding
Bishop Kathryn!
What a wonderful bookending of history that event – going on at this moment, not ten miles
from here – must be!
But I’m here. I’m here, not just because it’s my job to be here, but because we have work to do.
In the years I’ve been with you, we have spoken much about our need to grow not only as
people – which is our primary task as Christians and as the Church – but to grow, as well, in
parish numbers. In fact, the whole Episcopal Church is faced with that same need to grow.
And it has long seemed to me that one of the reasons our beloved Episcopal Church does not
grow – one of the reasons our Church continues to be less than 2% of this nation – is that we
the members, we Episcopalians, don’t realize what we’ve got in this great Church; don’t realize
who we are! We suffer, it seems, from a built-in inferiority complex that is quite possibly the
least deserved in all of Christendom! And that’s a part of who we are that needs to change!
We do need to grow this parish and this Church. And I think a good step we ought to take in our
own hearts and minds is to recognize what we already are and already have as one small part of
the finest Church in Christendom - and proudly claim our place while we reach out to others,
inviting them to join us!
In the Name of the One we serve, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen