Absalom Jones (1746-1818)
Absalom Jones was born a house slave in 1746 in Delaware. After being sold to a store owner in Philadelphia at sixteen, he eventually bought his own freedom in 1784. At St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church, he served as lay minister for its Black membership. The active evangelism of Jones and that of his friend, Richard Allen, greatly increased Black membership at St. George’s. The alarmed vestry decided to segregate Blacks into an upstairs gallery, without notifying them. During a Sunday service when ushers attempted to remove them, the Blacks indignantly walked out in a body. In 1787, Black Christians organized the Free African Society and Jones and Allen were elected overseers. In 1792, the Society began to build a church, which was dedicated on July 17, 1794. The African Church applied for membership in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania on the following conditions: 1, that they be received as an organized body; 2, that they have control over their local affairs; 3, that Absalom Jones be licensed as layreader, and, if qualified, be ordained as minister. In October 1794 it was admitted as St. Thomas African Episcopal Church. Bishop White ordained Jones as deacon in 1795 and as priest on September 21, 1802. HWHM, alt.
Antiphon: https://tinyurl.com/4v96u5uv
Like newborn infants, you must long for the pure, spiritual milk,
that in him you may grow to salvation, alleluia. 1 Peter 2
Deliver us, Lord, from every evil,
and grant us peace in our day.
In your mercy keep us free from sin
and protect us from all anxiety
as we wait in joyful hope
for the coming of your Son, Jesus Christ,
our Savior and Lord. Amen. BCW2018
Music: https://tinyurl.com/ycn4djk5
O Lord, open my lips.
And my mouth will declare your praise.
Make haste, O God, to deliver me;
make haste to help me, O Lord.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Praise to you, O Christ, Alleluia!
HYMN: Philip Doddridge
Tune: Martyrdom https://tinyurl.com/9ajpd883
1 O God of Jacob, by whose hand
Thy people still are fed;
Who, through his weary pilgrimage,
Hast all our fathers led!
2 To thee our humble vows we raise,
To thee address our prayer;
And in thy kind and faithful breast
Deposit all our care.
3 Through each perplexing path of life
Our wand’ring footsteps guide;
Give us by day our daily bread,
And raiment fit provide.
4 O! spread thy cov’ring wings around,
Till all our wand’rings cease;
And at our fathers’ lov’d abode
Our souls arrive in peace!
5 To thee, as to our cov’nant God,
We’ll our whole selves resign;
And thankful own that all we are,
And all we have, is thine.
PSALMS
Psalm 69 (Anglican Chant: https://tinyurl.com/ybbl2s4j)
1 Save me, O God *
for the waters are come in, even unto my soul.
2 I stick fast in the deep mire, where no ground is *
I am come into deep waters, so that the floods run over me.
3 I am weary of crying; my throat is dry *
my sight faileth me for waiting so long upon my God.
4 They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of my head *
they that are mine enemies, and would destroy me guiltless, are mighty.
5 I paid them the things that I never took *
God, thou knowest my simpleness, and my faults are not hid from thee.
6 Let not them that trust in thee, O Lord God of hosts,
be ashamed for my cause *
let not those that seek thee be confounded through me,
O Lord God of Israel.
7 And why? for thy sake have I suffered reproof *
shame hath covered my face.
8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren *
even an alien unto my mother’s children.
9 For the zeal of thine house hath even eaten me *
and the rebukes of them that rebuked thee are fallen upon me.
10 I wept, and chastened myself with fasting *
and that was turned to my reproof.
11 I put on sackcloth also *
and they jested upon me.
12 They that sit in the gate speak against me *
and the drunkards make songs upon me.
13 But, Lord, I make my prayer unto thee *
in an acceptable time.
14 Hear me, O God, in the multitude of thy mercy *
even in the truth of thy salvation.
15 Take me out of the mire, that I sink not *
O let me be delivered from them that hate me,
and out of the deep waters.
16 Let not the water-flood drown me,
neither let the deep swallow me up *
and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
17 Hear me, O Lord, for thy loving-kindness is comfortable *
turn thee unto me according to the multitude of thy mercies.
18 And hide not thy face from thy servant, for I am in trouble *
O haste thee, and hear me.
19 Draw nigh unto my soul, and save it *
O deliver me, because of mine enemies.
20 Thou hast known my reproof, my shame, and my dishonour *
mine adversaries are all in thy sight.
21 Thy rebuke hath broken my heart; I am full of heaviness *
I looked for some to have pity on me, but there was no man,
neither found I any to comfort me.
22 They gave me gall to eat *
and when I was thirsty they gave me vinegar to drink.
23 Let their table be made a snare to take themselves withal *
and let the things that should have been for their wealth
be unto them an occasion of falling.
24 Let their eyes be blinded, that they see not *
and ever bow thou down their backs.
25 Pour out thine indignation upon them *
and let thy wrathful displeasure take hold of them.
26 Let their habitation be void *
and no man to dwell in their tents.
27 For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten *
and they talk how they may vex them whom thou hast wounded.
28 Let them fall from one wickedness to another *
and not come into thy righteousness.
29 Let them be wiped out of the book of the living *
and not be written among the righteous.
30 As for me, when I am poor and in heaviness *
thy help, O God, shall lift me up.
31 I will praise the Name of God with a song *
and magnify it with thanksgiving.
32 This also shall please the Lord *
better than a bullock that hath horns and hoofs.
33 The humble shall consider this, and be glad *
seek ye after God, and your soul shall live.
34 For the Lord heareth the poor *
and despiseth not his prisoners.
35 Let heaven and earth praise him *
the sea, and all that moveth therein.
36 For God will save Sion, and build the cities of Judah *
that men may dwell there, and have it in possession.
37 The posterity also of his servants shall inherit it *
and they that love his Name shall dwell therein.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son :
and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be :
world without end. Amen.
Psalm 70 (Anglican Chant: https://tinyurl.com/ybjtdo2u)
1 Haste thee, O God, to deliver me *
make haste to help me, O Lord.
2 Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul *
let them be turned backward and put to confusion that wish me evil.
3 Let them for their reward be soon brought to shame *
that cry over me, There, there.
4 But let all those that seek thee be joyful and glad in thee *
and let all such as delight in thy salvation say alway, The Lord be praised.
5 As for me, I am poor and in misery *
haste thee unto me, O God.
6 Thou art my helper, and my redeemer *
O Lord, make no long tarrying.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son :
and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be :
world without end. Amen.
Psalm 69 (Plainsong Tone IV.4)
1 Save me, O God, * †
for the waters have come up even to my neck.
2 I sink down in the deep mire, where there is no ground; *
I have come into deep waters, so that the floods run over me.
3 I am weary of crying; my throat is dry; *
my sight fails me from waiting so long for my God.
4 Those who hate me without a cause are more
than the hairs of my head; *
those who are my enemies, and would
destroy me wrongfully, are mighty.
5 They bid me restore things I never took. *
O God, you know my foolishness,
and my faults are not hidden from you.
6 Let not those who trust in you, O Lord God of hosts,
be ashamed because of me; *
let not those who seek you be confounded through me,
O God of Israel.
7 Surely for your sake have I suffered reproach; *
shame has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brethren, *
unknown to my mother’s children,
9 Because zeal for your house has consumed me, *
and the reproaches of those who reproached you
have fallen upon me.
10 I wept, and humbled myself with fasting, *
but that was turned to my reproach.
11 I put on sackcloth also, *
and I became a byword among them.
12 Those who sit in the gate speak against me, *
and the drunkards make songs about me.
13 But, Lord, I make my prayer to you *
in an acceptable time.
14 Hear me, O God, in the multitude of your mercy, *
even in the truth of your salvation.
15 Take me out of the mire, lest I sink; *
O let me be delivered from those who hate me,
and out of the deep waters.
16 Let not the floodwaters drown me,
neither let the deep swallow me up, *
and let not the pit shut its mouth upon me.
17 Hear me, O Lord, for your loving-kindness is good; *
turn to me according to the multitude of your mercies;
18 And hide not your face from your servant, for I am in trouble; *
O hasten and hear me.
19 Draw near to me and save me; *
O deliver me because of my enemies.
20 You have known my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor; *
my adversaries are all in your sight.
21 Reproach has broken my heart; I am full of heaviness; *
I looked for some to have pity on me, but there was no one,
neither have I found any to comfort me.
22 They gave me gall to eat, *
and when I was thirsty they gave me vinegar to drink.
23 Let their table become a snare for them, *
and let their prosperity become a trap for them.
24 Let their eyes be blinded, that they may not see, *
and make their loins tremble continually.
25 Pour out your indignation upon them, *
and let your wrathful displeasure overtake them.
26 Let their habitation be desolate, *
and let no one dwell in their tents.
27 For they persecute him whom you have stricken, *
and they talk of the pain of those you have wounded.
28 Lay to their charge guilt upon guilt, *
and let them not receive your vindication.
29 Let them be wiped out of the book of the living, *
and not be written among the righteous.
30 As for me, when I am poor and in pain, *
your help, O God, shall lift me up.
31 I will praise the Name of God with a song, *
and magnify it with thanksgiving.
32 This also shall please the Lord *
more than an ox or a bullock that has horns and hooves.
33 The humble shall consider this and be glad; *
seek after God and your hearts shall live.
34 For the Lord hears the poor *
and does not despise his prisoners.
35 Let heaven and earth praise him, *
the sea, and all that moves therein.
36 For God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah, *
that they may dwell there and have it in possession.
37 The posterity of his servants shall inherit it, *
and those who love his Name shall dwell therein.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; *
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Psalm 70 (Plainsong: http://oremus.org/chant/Psalm-70.mp3)
1 Be pleased, O God, to deliver me; *
O LORD, make haste to help me.
2 Let those who seek my life be ashamed
and altogether dismayed; *
let those who take pleasure in my misfortune
draw back and be disgraced.
3 Let those who say to me “Aha!” and gloat over me turn back, *
because they are ashamed.
4 Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; *
let those who love your salvation say for ever,
“Great is the LORD!”
5 But as for me, I am poor and needy; *
come to me speedily, O God.
6 You are my helper and my deliverer; *
O LORD, do not tarry.
PRAYER
Blessed are you, God of hope;
you restore the fallen
and rebuild the broken walls.
Teach us the song of thanksgiving,
for you are the strength of your people;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. BCW
THE WORD OF GOD
READING: Genesis 28:10-22
Jacob left Beer-sheba and set out for Haran. He reached a certain place and spent the night there. When the sun had set, he took one of the stones at that place and put it near his head. Then he lay down there. He dreamed and saw a raised staircase, its foundation on earth and its top touching the sky, and God’s messengers were ascending and descending on it. Suddenly the Lord was standing on it and saying, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will become like the dust of the earth; you will spread out to the west, east, north, and south. Every family of earth will be blessed because of you and your descendants. I am with you now, I will protect you everywhere you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done everything that I have promised you.”
When Jacob woke from his sleep, he thought to himself, The Lord is definitely in this place, but I didn’t know it. He was terrified and thought, This sacred place is awesome. It’s none other than God’s house and the entrance to heaven. After Jacob got up early in the morning, he took the stone that he had put near his head, set it up as a sacred pillar, and poured oil on the top of it. He named that sacred place Bethel, though Luz was the city’s original name. Jacob made a solemn promise: “If God is with me and protects me on this trip I’m taking, and gives me bread to eat and clothes to wear, and I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God. This stone that I’ve set up as a sacred pillar will be God’s house, and of everything you give me I will give a tenth back to you.”
HYMN: Unknown
Tune: Jacob’s Ladder https://tinyurl.com/u483rfmb
1 As Jacob with travel was weary one day,
At night on a stone for a pillow he lay;
He saw in a vision a ladder so high
That its foot was on earth and its top in the sky:
Refrain:
Alleluia to Jesus, who died on the tree,
And has raised up a ladder of mercy for me,
And has raised up a ladder of mercy for me.
2 This ladder is long, it is strong and well made,
Has stood hundreds of years and is not yet decayed;
Many millions have climbed it and reached Sion’s hill,
And thousands by faith are climbing it still: [Refrain]
3 Come, let us ascend! All may climb it who will;
For the angels of Jacob are guarding it still:
And remember, each step that by faith we pass o’er,
Some prophet or martyr hath trod it before: [Refrain]
4 And when we arrive at the haven of rest,
We shall hear the glad words, “Come up hither, ye blest,
Here are regions of light, here are mansions of bliss.”
Oh, who would not climb such a ladder as this? [Refrain]
READING: Romans 7:1-13
Brothers and sisters, I’m talking to you as people who know the Law. Don’t you know that the Law has power over someone only as long as he or she lives? A married woman is united with her husband under the Law while he is alive. But if her husband dies, she is released from the Law concerning her husband. So then, if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, she’s committing adultery. But if her husband dies, she’s free from the Law, so she won’t be committing adultery if she marries someone else. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also died with respect to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you could be united with someone else. You are united with the one who was raised from the dead so that we can bear fruit for God. When we were self-centered, the sinful passions aroused through the Law were at work in all the parts of our body, so that we bore fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law. We have died with respect to the thing that controlled us, so that we can be slaves in the new life under the Spirit, not in the old life under the written Law.
So what are we going to say? That the Law is sin? Absolutely not! But I wouldn’t have known sin except through the Law. I wouldn’t have known the desire for what others have if the Law had not said, Don’t desire to take what others have. But sin seized the opportunity and used this commandment to produce all kinds of desires in me. Sin is dead without the Law. I used to be alive without the Law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life, and I died. So the commandment that was intended to give life brought death. Sin seized the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and killed me. So the Law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.
So did something good bring death to me? Absolutely not! But sin caused my death through something good so that sin would be exposed as sin. That way sin would become even more thoroughly sinful through the commandment.
HYMN: Isaac Watts
Tune: Warwick https://tinyurl.com/yyp2n4pb
1 Lord, how secure my conscience was,
And felt no inward dread!
I was alive without the law,
And thought my sins were dead.
2 My hopes of heaven were firm and bright:
But since the precept came
With a convincing power and light,
I find how vile I am.
3 My guilt appeared but small before,
Till terribly I saw
How perfect, holy, just, and pure,
Was thy eternal law.
4 Then felt my soul the heavy load,
My sins revived again;
I had provoked a dreadful God,
And all my hopes were slain.
5 My God, I cry with every breath
For some kind power to save,
To break the yoke of sin and death,
And thus redeem the slave.
READING: Mark 6:7-13
He called for the Twelve and sent them out in pairs. He gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a walking stick—no bread, no bags, and no money in their belts. He told them to wear sandals but not to put on two shirts. He said, “Whatever house you enter, remain there until you leave that place. If a place doesn’t welcome you or listen to you, as you leave, shake the dust off your feet as a witness against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that people should change their hearts and lives. They cast out many demons, and they anointed many sick people with olive oil and healed them.
CANTICLE 1 Chronicles 29:10-13
(Sing the Hours)
Blessed may you be, O Lord,
God of Israel our father,
from eternity to eternity.
Yours, O Lord, are grandeur and power,
majesty, splendor, and glory.
For all in heaven and on earth is yours;
yours, O Lord, is the sovereignty:
you are exalted as head over all.
Riches and honor are from you,
and you have dominion over all.
In your hand are power and might;
it is yours to give grandeur and strength to all.
Therefore, our God, we give you thanks
and we praise the majesty of your name.
THE PRAYERS CGP
O God, lover of the world,
you hold all that you have created
within your compassionate embrace.
As you hold our lives
torn by pain, sorrow or hatred within your aching heart,
we cry out for wholeness—
for ourselves, for those we love,
and for our world.
May your healing presence gently transform
the places of our lives where we hold pain.
May your loving presence be a comforting reality
for all those who find themselves
in despair, lost or alone.
May your transforming presence
create generosity in place of greed,
harmony in place of hatred,
and everlasting justice where evil now reigns.
From the silence of our own hearts,
we bring before you
these people and places that need
your healing, loving, transforming presence:
O God, lover of the world,
this is your world,
and we claim your power and your presence
to make it whole. Amen.
(Traditional chant: https://tinyurl.com/ydzx5jdp)
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
[For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.]
Set us free, heavenly Father,
from every bond of prejudice and fear;
that, honoring the steadfast courage of your servant Absalom Jones,
we may show forth in our lives the reconciling love
and true freedom of the children of God,
which you have given us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen. HWHM
Music: https://tinyurl.com/y9efvwm5
Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen. 2 Cor. 13:14
BCW Book of Common Worship, Presbyterian Church U.S.A., 1993.
BCW2018 Book of Common Worship, Presbyterian Church U.S.A., 2018
CGP Celebrating God’s Presence, © United Church of Canada
HWHM Holy Women, Holy Men © 2010 The Church Pension Fund.
DL © Daniel Lawson; used with permission.
The main scripture readings are © 2011 Common English Bible.
The traditional language psalms are from The Book of Common Prayer (1662). Psalm 69 is from Book of Common Prayer (2019) as recorded for the St Bernard Breviary https://www.bernardbreviary.com/chant-helps. Psalm 70 is from The Book of Common Prayer (1979) and is chanted by Ryland Angel. The canticle is from Liturgy of the Hours as recorded for Sing the Hours https://www.youtube.com/c/SingtheHours
Musical links are usually either to artists’ albums posted on Spotify or to recordings made available at smallchurchmusic.com. Audio stripped from YouTube videos is footnoted accordingly above.
Compilation © 2026 Stephen T. Benner. All links worked at the time they were created, but I cannot accept responsibility for their content or any damage resulting from their use. The linked content is under the control of the respective content creators and is subject to change at any time. Any copyright texts included in this compilation are provided for non-commercial purposes related to study or worship. Please contact the respective copyright holders for permission to use the texts in other contexts.
Oremus 