St. George's United Methodist Church, located at the corner of 4th and New Streets, in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia, is the oldest Methodist church in continuous use in the United States,St. George's United Methodist Church beginning in 1769. The congregation was founded in 1767, meeting initially in a sail loft on Dock Street, and in 1769 it purchased the shell of a building which had been erected in 1763 by a German Reformed congregation. At this time, Methodists had not yet broken away from the Anglican Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church was not founded until 1784. ()
Richard Allen and Absalom Jones became the first African Americans licensed by the Methodist Church. They were licensed by St. George's Church in 1784. Three years later, protesting racial segregation in the worship services, Allen led most of the black members out of St. George's. Allen's camp founded the Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church and the African Methodist Episcopal denomination, while Jones became an Episcopal priest, founding the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas.
In the 1920s a court case saved the church from being demolished to make way for the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. The case resulted in the bridge being relocated.
St. George's has experienced many changes during its 249-year history. From 100 members in 1769, the church grew to a peak membership of 3,200 congregants in 1835. The Civil War and industrialization changed the neighborhood; the congregation was reduced to 25 by 1900.
Today the church is a Methodist congregation, tracing its roots back to its founding in 1769. The current pastor of St. George's is Reverend Dr. Bill Wilson. St. George's is one of the more than 500 churches in the Eastern PA Conference of the United Methodist Church
St. George's is committed to a theology of love and inclusion, to personal transformation by faith, and to putting God's love to work in the community – the same core values as the first Methodists who met there. St. George's is also continuing with the ongoing work of reconciliation with African-American brothers and sisters for the racial injustices of the past.
Early Philadelphia Methodist Society
The congregation was founded in 1767 and initially met in a sail loft on Dock Street. After meeting at the sail loft for a few years the fledgling Philadelphia Society moved on to their second meeting place which was a “public” house located at 8 Loxley Court, two blocks south of St. George's. This house was owned by prominent Philadelphian Benjamin Lowley who also owned and lived at the house at 177 South 2nd Street, which had a balcony upon which George Whitefield had famously preached to thousands in years prior.
At the Methodist conference in England on August 16, 1768, Methodist founder John Wesley had presented the idea of sending preachers to America. At the conference the following year in Leeds on August 1–4, 1769, Joseph Pilmore and Richard Boardman volunteered to go to America to assist the Methodist societies already forming there and to build upon the years of work done by George Whitefield and others in the Great Awakening.
Joseph Pilmore and Richard Boardman volunteered to preach to the fledgling Methodist movement in the new world colonies. Pilmore and Boardman arrived in Philadelphia October 21, 1769. Boardman then moved on to New York to establish a base there and Pilmore stayed in Philadelphia. They then traded places every four months after that.
In Philadelphia Pilmore and Boardman were welcomed by John Hood and Lambert Wilmer of the Philadelphia Society and soon after they met fellow Methodist preachers Robert Williams and the charismatic Captain Thomas Webb. The society grew rapidly under the guidance of the popular Pilmore and they were soon ready for a new meeting place to accommodate their growing numbers.
Purchase of the building and grounds
On Thursday, November 23, 1769, Joseph Pilmore wrote in his journal:
The building was purchased for 650 pounds by Miles Pennington, a member of the Philadelphia Methodist Society. On the day of the purchase, the Methodists took possession of the building and began worshiping there, which continues to this day. On Friday, November 24, 1769, the day after the purchase, Pilmore dedicated the unfinished building with a sermon to 100 worshipers upon the text, "Who are thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain, and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying grace, grace upon it." (Zechariah 4:7 KJV)
The purchase price did not include the grounds, which were owned by a Dr. Shippen, which was rented to the Society at 70 pounds sterling annually, redeemable within ten years by the payment of 400 pounds. In late 1782 Francis Asbury began an effort to pay off the rest of the grounds and accomplished this task by June 25, 1802.
The corner stone of the building is dated 1763. The building was "a mere shell" when purchased with no paint, plaster, or interior finishing. It originally stood about two feet above the street and took several steps to enter. The construction of the interior developed slowly over the next several years, in 1784 the walls were plastered, and in 1790 the church was floored with more comfortable seats installed. The galleries were built in 1792.
In 1800 a portico was built for the front door. In 1836 the shallow cellar was excavated to allow a vestibule and a room below for a Sunday School, the portico was removed and the center window above the front door was inserted.
Francis Asbury and The First American Conference
Francis Asbury, later one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, arrived in America on October 27, 1771, after a fifty-three-day ocean voyage from England and received at St. George's. Asbury wrote in his journal, "...we were brought in the evening to a large church, where we met a considerable congregation. Mr. Pilmore preached. The people looked on us with pleasure, hardly knowing how to show their love sufficiently, bidding us welcome with fervent affection, and receiving us as the angels of God." Asbury preached for the first time at St. George's the next day, his first American sermon out of approximately 16,500 that he preached over 270,000 miles of traveling back and forth across the colonies. He served St. George's as pastor but also spent a great deal of time traveling around the colonies. Asbury worked tirelessly to bring Methodism to the new American nation as one of its leading itinerant ministers, traveling 270,000 miles on horseback and ordaining more than 4,000 ministers over the course of 45 years. The first conference at which Asbury presided in Philadelphia was held at St. George's on September 22–26, 1788.
In the spring of 1773 Thomas Rankin, who had been appointed by Methodist founder John Wesley as superintendent of the American Methodists, called the first American Methodist conference. Asbury and Rankin did not have a good relationship and at this conference Asbury was appointed to Baltimore. Maryland was an important bastion of Methodism at the time with 500 of its 1,600 members in that colony. Rankin then had a series of appointments to New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.
American Revolution
The outbreak of the American Revolution signaled the beginning of a difficult time for the fledgling American Methodist Church. Church founder John Wesley spoke out against the colonial uprising and lost a great deal of influence in the colonies. Asbury declined to take the loyalty oath to the new revolutionary government and was fined. During a 20-month period during the revolution, Asbury retired at the home of Methodist Judge Thomas White near Dover, Delaware. With the colonies in disarray due to the impacts of war and the accompanying social upheaval, Asbury convened a conference of the northern preachers and virtually assumed control of the American Methodist societies.
In 1776 the Revolution was erupting across the colonies. Thomas Rankin had a premonition about the battle of Long Island Battle of Long Island. John Wesley had written "A Calm Address to the American Colonists", which created antipathy towards the Methodists by supporters of the revolution. Francis Asbury was harassed on several occasions, including being fined for preaching near Baltimore and once have his Chaise shot through, after which he went into hiding. Methodists were imprisoned and beaten for not supporting the rebellion.
In 1777, while the British army occupied Philadelphia, St. George's was occupied for a time as a hospital and then as a riding school for the cavalry. During this time the St. George's community worship at First Baptist Church on Front Street. For years after the war was over British military implements lay around the building. After the war the membership was reorganized with 50 people and Freeborn Garretson was appointed as preacher. The British army left the building in worse shape than they found it and following the war the church members began to build up the church, installing floorboards, seats, and a pulpit. The church was plastered in 1784. The galleries were added in 1790.
During the revolution a controversy had erupted over the issue of the American Methodists being required to receive ordinances and communion from Church of England clergy. This eventually let to the complete separation of the American Methodists from Wesley and Great Britain and the organization of a separate independent church. Wesley recognized the situation and sent Dr. Thomas Coke to America to consecrate Asbury as American church superintendent but Asbury refused until the office until he received the unanimous election of the preachers. This led to the assembling of the Christmas Conference in Baltimore from December 24, 1784 – January 3, 1785. At this conference Asbury and Coke were both elected as Superintendents, a title that was later changed to Bishop.
African Methodist Episcopal split
Early Methodists advocated on behalf of the marginalized black members of their society, both slaves and freed people. John Wesley, just six days before his death and after reading the testimony of former slave Gustavus Vassa wrote a letter to William Wilberforce in an unsuccessful attempt to pass abolition legislation that stated: "I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy, which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature." Joseph Pilmore openly accepted and administered to the black community in Philadelphia and elsewhere in his ministry.
St. George's licensed Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, the first black lay preachers in Methodism in 1784. Born a slave, Richard Allen purchased his freedom two years later in 1786, he then organized a "class" with 42 people, becoming its leader. In 1799 Allen was ordained by Asbury.
The successful outreach of Allen and Jones drew a large community of black worshipers to the congregation. However, racial tensions flared, most notably in a seating policy segregating black members into a newly constructed upstairs gallery, without notification. The next Sunday in 1787, white ushers attempted to forcibly drag a black member of the church, Absolem Jones, to a different pew. They were unsuccessful in removing him, but Allen, Jones, and the other black worshipers walked out of St. George's in a body at the end of the service and refused to return. This led to the formation of the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, with Jones as the first pastor, and Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, with Allen as its first pastor, and eventually to the formation of the AME denomination.