The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, Bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina, will deliver the 2005 Absalom Jones Lecture at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge at 7:00 pm on February 16. Bishop Curry will also serve as celebrant at the Eucharist the following morning at 8:30 am. These events commemorate the life and ministry of Absalom Jones, the first African American priest in the Episcopal Church.
An Absalom Jones celebration is held every year at EDS to help support the Absalom Jones Scholarship Fund. Established in 1986, the fund provides scholarships for African American students from EDS preparing for ordination in the Episcopal Church. Absalom Jones was born a house slave in Delaware in 1746. At 16 he was sold to a store owner in Philadelphia, but eventually bought his wife's freedom and his own. In 1787, black Christians organized the Free African Society, with Jones elected as one of two overseers. He was ordained deacon in the St. Thomas African Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Pennsylvania in 1795, and priest in 1802.
The Rt. Rev. Michael B. Curry is the eleventh bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina, consecrated on June 17, 2000 at Duke University Chapel in Durham, North Carolina. Bishop Curry earned his Master's of Divinity degree in 1978 from Yale University Divinity School and has done continued study at the College of Preachers, Princeton Theological Seminary, Wake Forest University, the Ecumenical Institute, and the Institute of Christian Jewish Studies. He has received honorary degrees from Sewanee and Yale.
As Rector of three parish ministries in North Carolina, Ohio, and Maryland, Bishop Curry had extensive involvement in Crisis Control Ministry, the founding of ecumenical summer day camps for children, the Absalom Jones initiative, creation of educational centers, and the brokering of millions of dollars of investment in inner city neighborhoods. As Rector of St. James in Baltimore, Maryland, Bishop Curry launched a $2.5 million restoration of the church building after a fire. Also at St. James, Bishop Curry inspired an After School Academy which was designated a Jubilee Ministry by former Presiding Bishop Edmund Browning.
The lecture and Eucharist will take place in St. John's Memorial Chapel on the EDS campus. Each event will be followed by a reception in Washburn Lounge. Both are free and open to the public, although reservations are required as seating is limited. The Chapel and Washburn Lounge are handicap accessible. For more information or to reserve a space, contact Alcurtis Clark at 617-868-3450 extension 306.
