There will be a special choral prayer service at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church at 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 16, commemorating the Rev. Absalom Jones, who was born into slavery and became the first African American ordained to the priesthood by The Episcopal Church.

This service is a joint effort by St. Luke’s, located at 806 13th St., Altoona, and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Hollidaysburg, as part of their collaborative Shaped by Faith project.

The public is encouraged to attend. An offering will be taken to support the feeding ministries of the two churches.

Musical selections for this service include a mixture of traditional spirituals and other hymns.

The choir will be led by Annette Nagle and consist of special leaders for each vocal part, as well as volunteers from the two churches and the broader community. The section leaders are Brandis Ajay, soprano; Max Iacono, baritone; Angi Lambert, alto; and Timothy Nearhood, tenor.

The Sunday service will include “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a hymn with lyrics by James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) and set to music by his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954).

The hymn, which premiered in 1900, is often referred to as the Black national anthem. It focuses on thanksgiving to God, faithfulness, and freedom, with imagery that evokes the biblical Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the “promised land.”

The Rev. Jones

After Pennsylvania abolished slavery, Absalom Jones and his friend, Richard Allen, became lay ministers and two of the first African Americans licensed to preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church. The two men founded the Free African Society (FAS) together as a nondenominational mutual aid society in Philadelphia to help newly freed people in Philadelphia and continued to collaborate, though they later took separate paths religiously.

Jones began conducting religious services at FAS in 1791, and it became the core of St. Thomas’s, also known as the African Episcopal, Church. Jones led a celebration of the abolition of the African slave trade by the United States Congress on Jan. 1, 1808. He preached a sermon of thanksgiving on that day at St. Thomas’s African Church of Philadelphia, where he helped establish a tradition of anti-slavery sermons on New Year’s Day. This sermon was published in pamphlet form and is available online.

Singers sought

Two additional choral events are scheduled this year, and new volunteers are welcome to join the choir, open to all who enjoy singing, regardless of experience. Sight-reading is not required. The group will provide the music for a Celtic Eucharist on Sunday, March 16, and an Ascension Day service on Thursday, May 29. Anyone interested in participating in the choir should contact St. Luke’s at info@stlukesaltoona.org or call 814-942-1372.