The African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas was founded in 1792 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the first black Episcopal Church in the United States. It developed from the Free African Society, a non-denominational group formed by blacks who left St. George Methodist Church because of discrimination. Led by Absalom Jones, a free black and lay Methodist preacher who became ordained in 1804 as a priest in the Episcopal Church, the Church became one of the major features in Philadelphia's black cultural life.[1] While the congregation has worshipped in several different buildings, it has been in continuous activity since its founding.
The Church became the first black church in the country to purchase a pipe organ, and then the first to hire a black woman as organist, Ann Appo.[2]