This year\u2019s celebration of African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas\u2019 founder, Rev. Absalom Jones, was intrinsically political. <\/p>\n
Parishioners on Sunday overwhelmed the pews at the Overbrook<\/a> Farms church for the annual event honoring Jones, the first Black ordained Episcopal priest. But this year\u2019s service took on new meaning after Jones\u2019 legacy was stripped from the President\u2019s House historical site on Independence Mall, the church\u2019s rector said. <\/p>\n Last month, the National Park Service dismantled the exhibit<\/a> memorializing the lives of nine people enslaved at the nation\u2019s first presidential mansion. The illustrative displays chronicled the Atlantic slave trade and President George Washington\u2019s dogged support for the institution. They also elevated early influential Black Philadelphians, like Jones and contemporary Richard Allen. The site was a casualty of President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s push to remove all content that \u201cinappropriately disparages Americans past or living\u201d from federal land \u2014 what many have called an attempt to sanitize history by omitting the brutality of slavery from the narrative. <\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Here are the signs the Trump administration removed from Independence Park<\/a><\/p>\n The 35-minute sermon, delivered by visiting Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, ran the gamut: From Bad Bunny\u2019s Super Bowl halftime performance<\/a>, to unrest in Minnesota over Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown, the detention of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos<\/a>, and dysphoria spreading throughout the country. <\/p>\n But Curry\u2019s prevailing message was clear: Fight through the vicissitudes. Curry, former presiding bishop<\/a> and primate of the Episcopal Church, is the first African American presiding bishop in the country. <\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to taste freedom, if you want America to be just again,\u201d Curry said, \u201cif you want an America where every person is a child of God, where there is freedom and justice \u2014 not just for some \u2014 but for all \u2026 don\u2019t you quit. Keep going, keep going.\u201d <\/p>\n Curry later added: \u201cIf we love America, change America.\u201d <\/p>\n The late afternoon service also featured young singers from Minnesota, faith leaders from other prominent Philadelphia institutions, and descents of Rev. Allen.<\/p>\n Jones and Allen, former slaves who became lay preachers in the 18th century and together created the benevolent Free African Society, were forced out of St. George\u2019s Methodist Church<\/a> general congregation and forced to worship in segregated pews. Jones went on to form St. Thomas, while Allen built Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church<\/a>. <\/p>\n The men\u2019s names and history were invoked throughout the President\u2019s House Site. A panel titled \u201cHow Did Enslaved People Become Free<\/a>?\u201d discussed Jones and Allen\u2019s experience at St. George\u2019s, their respective parishes, and how they organized against slavery. <\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Local leaders and activists demand the return of slavery exhibits to the President\u2019s House Site<\/a><\/p>\n The erasure of the site \u2014 which captured the somber paradox of a young America that exalted freedom for some but deprived others \u2014 comes ahead of the country\u2019s Semiquincentennial<\/a> celebrations putting Philadelphia in the national spotlight. <\/p>\n The city has filed lawsuits intervening, arguing that the removal of the exhibits is unlawful. A federal judge ordered that the exhibits be kept safe<\/a> while the court proceedings are ongoing. <\/p>\n