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Absalom Jones Celebration at the Cathedral
February 4 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
The Cathedral Choir, choirs of Mercyhurst University, and instrumentalists collaborate to celebrate the Feast of Absalom Jones on Sunday, February 4, 2024, 4:00 P.M. This community event honors the first-ordained, African American Priest. Jones was a slave who purchased his and his family’s freedom and, after being outcast from simply praying in church pews, founded his own Episcopal church of St. Thomas, Philadelphia.
The musical program features Margaret Bond’s Epiphany Cantata, The Ballad of the Brown King, with poetry by Langston Hughes. In both musical style and text, the work celebrates that the first to behold the newborn Savior were of diverse races.