Black history was celebrated during services at local Episcopal churches

By Tylan Nash
Contributing Writer

Trinity Episcopal Church, in the Lower Garden District, opened their doors on Feb. 17 to the local chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians for a celebration service to pay tribute to the Union’s two founders, Absalom Jones and Richard Allen.

For more than 200 years, the Union of Black Episcopalians across the country had been fighting racial injustices in the Episcopal Church and making an impact on the Episcopalian community. This struggle continues today given a lack of Black representation in the Episcopalian Church. But in New Orleans, the Episcopalian community came together to honor the memory of Allen and Jones during Black History Month.

REV. COREY BOUTTEE

“Richard Allen and Absalom Jones showed us the definition of what going the extra mile means,” said Corey D. Boutté, the guest preacher at Trinity Episcopal Church and preacher at St. John African Methodist Episcopal, in Algiers.

Absalom Jones was born into slavery in Sussex, Del. in 1746 and worked in the house and fields of Abra-ham Wyn-koop. After the elder Wynkoop died, his son, Benjamin Wynkoop, sold off the farm, separating Jones from his mother and six brothers and sisters. Wynkoop took Jones with him and moved to Philadelphia, and opened a store. After all of these events, Jones would later become ordained as a deacon in 1795, a priest in 1804, and the pastor of the first Black Episcopal congregation at the church he established in Philadelphia.

Like Jones, Richard Allen was born into slavery in Philadelphia in 1760 and worked on the fields owned by Benjamin Crew. However, his family would later be sold to another man in Delaware. Here, he would begin attending Methodist church services, and even began preaching. Allen bought his freedom after making enough gold and silver working as a wagon driver, and returned to Philadelphia in 1777.

In 1786, Jones met Allen at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia, where they would hold prayer services for free Blacks. In 1792, Absalom Jones formed the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, after being pulled from his knees during church service, and escorted to the back, along with other free Blacks, and Allen at St. George’s. After this event, the pair made it their mission to make sure that Black leadership and representation was present in their church, appointing more than 35 Black bishops.

“When they asked can you host the sermon, we said that would be a great joy for us to host it at Trinity, because we have celebrated them in the church before,” said Elaine Haney, a dedicated member of Trinity Episcopal Church.

The Union of Black Episcopalians, also known as the U.B.E., previously had a national conference in New Orleans and held service at Trinity a few years ago. So when they called Trinity for the joint service, they were more than happy to host the union in their church again, Haney said.

“The greatest commandment is that we love one another, like He loved us,” Boutté said. His congregation came to the service to deliver the prayers and the hymn selections. “We have to be examples to the world, that we can love one another, whether Black or white, we have to show that unity to the world,” Boutté said.

In coming to Trinity, Boutté said he hopes it shows the community how important it is to be great examples of what it means to be a part of the body of Christ. The service reflected the heritage of the Black churches, ending with a drum and trumpet selection done by Luther Gray and Hannibal Lokumbé. In a spirit of unity, the Trinity church members joined in the procession with the local union members as they followed the local artists out of the church doors, dancing and clapping.

Boutté testified to this while giving his sermon. “Black or white, it doesn’t matter what color, we serve one God,” he said.

This article originally published in the March 19, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.