Historic street scene outside Arch Street Meeting House in Philadelphia’ s Old City neighborhood. Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections
Not only was Allen a man of God, but he was also one of the nation’ s earliest civil rights activists, working tirelessly for justice on behalf of African Americans both enslaved and free. But it’ s not just Mother Bethel that illustrates the spiritual richness of Philadelphia. The city is full of historic churches that through their centuries-old ministries or simply through their longevity( see Christ Church, home church to the signers of the Constitution) make up Philadelphia’ s cultural legacy, not only in the faith community but in the city as a whole.
As America closes in on its semiquincentennial— 250th birthday— next year, Philadelphia, the“ Birthplace of America,” will be thrust in the spotlight once more. Historic sacred places will play a part in the story the city will tell.
But as congregations prepare for America’ s milestone celebration, they grapple with a complicated conundrum. How do you bring the past into the present? How do you get people to honor the sacred place’ s legacy while incorporating it in modern-day ministry? The answer is easier for some congregations than for others.
Places of worship such as Mother Bethel and Arch Street Meeting House are ideally located in Old City and the Society Hill historic district, where tourists would be naturally inclined to visit museums out of curiosity and convenience.
“ In a moment when an administration is seeking to erase history, we are still here and able to withstand it,” Cavaness said.
Proximity to tourist attractions also provides Arch Street Meeting House with an opportunity to tell the whole truth about Quaker history through planned exhibits, says Kayla D’ Oyen of the Arch Street Meeting House Preservation Trust.
“ We get a lot of questions about the role Quaker abolitionists played in the antienslavement movement and how that translates in civil rights and other movements,” D’ Oyen said.“ Early Friends were not abolitionists by any means. Pennsylvania had a huge slave trade that Quakers were participating in. So this
idea that Quakers were abolitionists and all the meeting houses were part of the Underground Railroad is definitely looking at history through a rose-colored lens.”
On the flip side, D’ Oyen looks forward to sharing the legacy of Quakers who stood at the forefront of social justice: civil rights stalwart Bayard Rustin, abolitionist Lucretia Mott, and abolitionist and educator Sarah Mapps Douglass all came though the meeting house doors. Activists also used the building to plan the March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights in 1979.
Like the imperfect people who created it, history is complicated, its significance evolving with each passing year. Perhaps no church recognizes that fact more than Historic St. George’ s United Methodist Church in Philadelphia’ s Old City. Founded in 1769, St. George’ s is America’ s oldest Methodist Church in continuous service. Today, it serves as a repository for the records of Philadelphia Methodist Churches that have had to close. Taylor Schmalz, head curator at St. George’ s, is planning a lecture series so that the collections from those shuttered churches can be displayed publicly.
During tours and talks, Schmalz also tells of St. George’ s dubious shared history with Mother Bethel. In the late 1700s, the head trustee at St. George’ s attempted to remove Allen and Absalom Jones while they were on their knees praying and send them to the balcony, where Black worshippers were relegated. Rather than move, Allen and Jones walked out.“ Was this the earliest demonstration against segregation in America?” Schmalz asked.“ We just don’ t know. But we tell the history to keep it from happening again.”
As discriminatory as the incident was, it empowered The Revs. Allen and Jones to make moves that changed the course of history. Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal denomination and its first church, Mother Bethel, in 1794. Jones established the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in 1792 and became its first rector, thereby becoming the first priest of African American descent in the Episcopal Church. St. Thomas’ s congregation was mostly composed of members of the Free African
8 SACRED PLACES • WINTER 2026