The Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians will hold
its annual Absalom Jones Day Celebration on Sunday, February 22 at
Tabernacle Christian Church (2500 East Washington Street, Suffolk),
hosted by St. Mark's, Suffolk. The celebration starts at 4 p.m. and will
be followed by light refreshments. The Very Rev. Phoebe Roaf, rector of
St. Philip's, Richmond, will preach.
Absalom
Jones was an African-American abolitionist and clergyman. He was the
first African-American ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church in
the United States in 1804. He was born into slavery in 1746 and achieved
his own freedom in 1784. Absalom taught himself to read out of the New
Testament, among other books.
The Very Rev. Phoebe Roaf, the rector of St. Philip's Episcopal Church
in Richmond, will preach. Roaf is a graduate of Virginia Theological
Seminary and is the first African-American woman to be ordained as an
Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Louisiana. She is the first woman to
serve as rector of St. Philip's in its 150 year history. 