In 1794 Jones founded the first black Episcopal congregation, and in 1802, he was the first African American to be ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church of the United States. He is listed on the Episcopal calendar of saints. He is remembered liturgically on the date of his death, February 13, in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer as "Absalom Jones, Priest, 1818".
Rev. Johnson speaks to Absalom Jones not as a symbol of victimization but of self-determination, not a causality of America’s history of racism but as a compelling example to follow in the efforts of African-Americans to live out the dignity they possess by their birthright and by virtue of baptism.
