2 historic Philadelphia churches offer lessons for a divided America today and at its beginning

“We had people who were loyal and people who supported independence, and the clergy at the time had to find a way to keep the congregation together.”

Congregations remain proud of the Church of Christ’s crucial role in America’s freedom. But it also faces contradictions. Some members of the church traded slaves and are buried in the churchyard next to the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin’s grave is in nearby Christ Church Burial Ground.

“While we are very proud of our history, these people were not perfect. Sometimes we tend to think of them that way, but they weren’t,” says Harvey Bartle, a congregant of more than 30 years. “What they were doing is trying to promote democracy. … At least they moved the ball beyond the divine right of kings, so that society, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, could advance the system.”

A church member, Absalom Jones, attended services at a sister congregation while enslaved to a man serving in church leadership. Jones bought his freedom and was eventually ordained by the rector of Christ Church as the first black priest of the Episcopal Church. He also went on to co-create the Free African Society of Philadelphia, which Fea says “sought to apply the rights secured by the American Revolution to the approximately 2,000 free black men and women living in the city at the time.”

Methodism was the fastest growing denomination in America in the 1790s. But some Methodist Episcopal Churches still segregated black worshipers during services in the upstairs galleries. This led free black Americans to establish their own congregation.

African Methodist Episcopal Church he was involved in the struggle for freedom and equality from the roots.

Its founder, Reverend Richard Allen, was born into slavery in Philadelphia in 1760 before buying his freedom in Delaware before he was 20 years old. He returned to the city in the 1780s and became a minister.

After white leaders at a Methodist church segregated Allen, Jones and other black worshipers into upstairs galleries for a prayer service, the group left the church and formed what would eventually become Mother Bethel AME. The church became a place of refuge for black people fleeing slavery along the Underground Railroad and later a major rallying point for the Civil Rights Movement.

By creating Mother Bethel, Allen “created a space where black people could hold out…at a time when, during slavery in the Deep South, black people could not even gather without the presence of a white man between them,” says Bethel. AME’s pastor, Rev. Mark Tyler.

Today, the AME Church has more than 2.5 million members and thousands of congregations in dozens of nations around the world.

“We’ve definitely made progress,” Tyler says, citing Kamala Harris’ campaign to become the country’s first black woman president. But he also believes much more needs to be done to reduce America’s racial inequality and worries about the potential Another Trump presidency, he says, has not “outlived its usefulness.”

“The fact that we have a person who openly embraces white supremacists, who was president once and could be president again in the 21st century, is all proof that you need to know that we still need places for black people to gathers. and organize like the Black Church,” he says.

During a recent Sunday service, Tyler encouraged his congregation to vote. Some members later reflected on America’s beginnings and its progress and shortcomings.

“Two things can be said at the same time: they were brilliant in the development of this nation. But they still had ideas of slavery, women weren’t allowed to vote, and that had to be changed,” parishioner Donna Matthews said of the Founding Fathers.

“Who are ‘We the People’?” I think people have to ask themselves that,” said Matthews, 63, who attended the service with her husband, Keith, and their young grandson, Ezekiel. “It’s everybody. And it’s the essence of why this church was founded.”

At the end of the service, parishioner Tayza Hill, 25, led groups on a tour of the church museum. It retains an original wooden pulpit used by the Reverend Allen and black leaders, including abolitionist Frederick Douglass and civil rights pioneer WEB Du Bois when they addressed the congregation.

Hill says he’s heard the same question on radio shows as the election nears: “Is the sun rising or setting on democracy?” She remains hopeful and believes the continuity of her church is vital.

“It’s important to see that there’s still a building that has history and it’s continually being told because it refuses to be erased from history,” says Hill. “As a nation and as a church, it is truly up to us to defend the rights and respectability of those who are denied a full chance at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

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