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My Brethren Rev. Jones Sermon

My Brethren

How will you celebrate your transition into the New Year? Shall I remind you, that you are in the mist of two of the most scared holidays in the descendants from Africa, those born or raised in America, history?  December 31st, the observance of Watch Night Service/Freedom Eve, and January 1st, the 200 anniversary, holiday observance of New Year Thanksgiving, also known as Freedom Day. Both historic holidays, at their birth, were the spiritual foundation and backbone of the African-American culture. Both historic holidays existed as the people of African descent, spiritual blueprint for the obtainment of holistic freedom. Please join PJC, as we unveil yet another missing historic page, in African-American history.

Ancient New Years Celebrations were first observed in ancient Africa, in Babylon, about 4000 years ago, before the time of Moses. At this period in history, Africa and the Middle East were not separated due to the ancient Eritrea Volcanoes, or separated by the Biblical Red Sea. The land of Babylon occupied the fertile Mesopotamian plain between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. In the bible, according to Genesis 2:14., this area was known as The Garden of Eden. Both the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers flowed from the Garden of Eden. The upper reaches of the Euphrates River flow through steep canyons and gorges, southeast across Syria, and through Iraq; the Tigris River flow through Turkey and joins the Euphrates near Al Qurna in southern Iraq. The Unites States of America recently attacked and took by force, the land of Babylon, the Garden of Eden.

In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began and was celebrated in late March, with the first New Moon, the fist day of spring. The New Year Celebration became out of synchronization with the sun, when emperors began tampering with their calendar, and celebrating the New Year when ever they felt like doing so. In ancient Egypt, the New Year was celebrated towards the end of September. The Egyptians would take the statues of the god Amon and his wife up the Nile by boat and there would be singing, dancing and feasting for a month before the statues were taken back to their temples. In 153 BC, the Roman Senate, for military reasons declared January 1st to be the beginning of the New Year. The date Jan 1st became the official established New Year date in 46 BC, when Julius Caesar established the Julius Calendar. The Early Roman Catholic Church originally saw the New Year Day Celebrations, as a pagan celebration. The Eastern Roman Catholic Church latter began to celebrate Jan 1st, New Years Day as the Feast of the Circumcision of Their Lord, a holy day of obligation, attending Mass in recognition of the first time Jesus Christ spilled blood for Mankind. The Feast of the Circumcision was celebrated with all night vigils, prayers and hymns.

Rev. Absalom Jones was the first African-American pastor in the United States to celebrate Jan 1st New Years Day, as was traditionally and spiritually practiced in Africa and Europe, with singing, praying, and feasting. Rev. Jones did so, on Jan. 1st 1808, when he gave his famous New Years Thanksgiving Sermon. The day consisted of prayer, a sermon, hymns, and a feast. Today, the New Year in Philadelphia is celebrated with the Mummers Parade, fireworks, drinking, clubbing, and feasting. Before the Mummers Day Parade and fireworks, New Year/Freedom Day was celebrated in church.

America finds itself, on the eve and day of the year 2008, in the center of history, the 200th anniversary of Rev. Jones historic Thanksgiving/Freedom Day sermon, and the 200th anniversary of the abolishment of the slave trade in our country. Yet no one is talking about this historic holiday or historic milestone. Why, I ask is this the case?

My Brethren, Rev. Jones was very specific on how January 1st should be celebrated, he said Let the first day of January, the day of the abolition of the slave trade in our country, be set apart in every year, as a day of public thanksgiving for that mercy. Let the history of the sufferings of our brethren, and of their deliverance, descend by this means to our children, to the remotest generations; and when they shall ask, in time to come, saying, What mean the lessons, the psalms, the prayers and the praises in the worship of this day? Let us answer them, by saying, the Lord, on the day of which this is the anniversary, abolished the trade which dragged your fathers from their native country, and sold them as bondmen in the United States of America.

Why did Absalom Jones, give a Thanksgiving Sermon, on the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in our country? Rev. Jones understood, the Thanksgiving tradition and the New Year traditional holiday were interconnected and went back, before the Mayflower, to the continent of Africa and Europe. He understood, the Thanksgiving and New Year holiday tradition included singing and praying to mark, as in Africa, the ending of the local harvest (Thanksgiving), and the beginning of the local harvest (New Year). Rev Jones understood that after the Mayflower, and after Americas original Thanksgiving Celebration, Thanksgiving was celebrated, when a political issue presented itself.

Absalom Jones understood the political cultural and spiritual importance of January 1st, the date upon which the last of the Africans living in Pennsylvania would finally receive their freedom, as was written in Pennsylvanias 1780 Gradual Emancipation Act. This document specified that every negro and Mulatto child born within the States after the passing of the Act (1780) would be free upon reaching age twenty eight. The year 1808 was the year of this historic moment. Rev. Jones felt that this historic year, and every year their after should consist of the lessons, the psalms, the prayers and the praises in the worship. Rev Jones understood the importance of a people of African descent celebrating a day from whence they came. Rev Jones said Let us constantly remember the rock whence we were hewn and the pit whence we were digged.

On January 1st 1808, Rev Jones reminded a people about the horror of slavery. “Yes, my brethren, the nations from which most of us have descended, and the country in which some of us were born, have been visited by the tender mercy of the Common Father of the human race. He has seen the affliction of our countrymen, with an eye of pity. He has seen the wicked arts, by which wars have been fomented among the different tribes of the Africans, in order to procure captives, for the purpose of selling them for slaves. He has seen ships fitted out from different ports in Europe and America, and freighted with trinkets to be exchanged for the bodies and souls of men. He has seen the anguish which has taken place, when parents have been torn from their children, and children from their parents, and conveyed, with their hands and feet bound in fetters, on board of ships prepared to receive them. He has seen them thrust in crowds into the holds of those ships, where many of them have perished from the want of air.

He has seen such of them as have escaped from that noxious place of confinement; leap into the ocean; with a faint hope of swimming back to their native shore, or a determination to seek early retreat from their impending misery, in a watery grave. He has seen them exposed for sale, like horses and cattle, upon the wharves; or, like bales of goods, in warehouses of West India and American sea ports. He has seen the pangs of separation between members of the same family. He has seen them driven into the sugar; the rice, and the tobacco fields, and compelled to work–in spite of the habits of ease which they derived from the natural fertility of their own country in the open air, beneath a burning sun, with scarcely as much clothing upon them as modesty required. He has seen them faint beneath the pressure of their labours. He has seen them return to their smoky huts in the evening, with nothing to satisfy their hunger but a scanty allowance of roots; and these, cultivated for their self, on that day only, which God ordained as a day of rest for man and beast. He has seen the neglect with which their masters have treated their immortal souls; not only in withholding religious instruction from them, but, in some instances, depriving them of access to the means of obtaining it.

He has seen all the different modes of torture, by means of the whip, the screw, the pincers, and the red hot iron, which have been exercised upon their bodies, by inhuman overseers: overseers, did I say? Yes: but not by these only. Our God has seen masters and mistresses, educated in fashionable life, sometimes take the instruments of torture into their own hands, and, deaf to the cries and shrieks of their agonizing slaves, exceed even their overseers in cruelty. Inhuman wretches!

Rev Jones sermon points out, the Willie Lynch method of slavery practiced in the United States, during his times. Today, these practices would constitute crimes committed against humanity. As Jones points out, the slave master kept the African history, from his-story books, the classroom, and the pulpit, for a reason.

My Brethren, shall I remind you that President Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st1863, the 55th anniversary of Absalom Jones sermon. Americas History books, omits for a reason, the link between Lincoln issuing his Emancipation Proclamation to Absalom Jones Thanksgiving Sermon and his founding Jan. 1st holiday celebration.  Why I ask is this the case? Rev Jones, in his Thanksgiving Sermon, talks about how the admittance of African history in his time was a common occurrence; he has seen the neglect with which their masters have treated the African immortal souls; not only in withholding religious instruction, information, from them, but, in some instances, depriving them of access to the means of obtaining it.

History, or shall I say his story has not been kind to Absalom Jones, an ancestor who is directly linked to the degrees of freedom, you and I enjoy today; an ancestor who is directly linked to President Abraham Lincoln issuing his Emancipation Proclamation, on January 1st 1863; an ancestor who along with Richard Allen founded the Most  Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge, Rev Jones was its first Worshipful Grand Master and Richard Allen was its first Sr., Warden; Rev Jones is the First African Episcopal pastor in the United States, he founded the first African Episcopal Church, in the U.S, Rev. Jones is the founding President of the African Free Society, the first established legal organization devoted to empowering and freeing descendants from Africa.

My Brethren, shall we turn back to the pages of history to understand and reveal the impact that Rev. Absalom Jones, who was 14 years older than Rev. Richard Allen, and Rev. Allen, played in the emancipation of the African in America? Shall we start by tracing and placing slavery in Philadelphia, in a chronological order? We will place aspects of Rev. Jones and Rev. Allen life, within our timeline of the history of slavery in Philadelphia.

In 1655 William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, father, Sir Admiral William Penn earned his wealth and reputation off of slavery. He was Cromwell’s Sea General who was responsible, with General Venables, for the British capture of Jamaica. Jamaica thus became the British colony where slaves were seasoned before being shipped to America.

On March 4, 1681 William Penn, the son and inheritor of his father, Sir Admiral William Penn estate, (his slaves, wealth and his owed debts) is granted his wish, Pennsylvania, by King Charles II of England. In granting William Penn his wish, King Charles II settles a debt he had owed Sir Admiral William Penn. During the reign of King Charles II, 13,562 Quakers were arrested and imprisoned in England and 198 were transported as slaves, and 338 died in prison or of wounds received in violent assaults on their meetings. These statistical facts are some of the reasons why the Society of Friends were sympathetic to the African freedom causes.

William Penn saw Pennsylvania as a site where he could profit from the slave trade, as well as a site where Quakes could escape percussion at the hands of Cromwell’s Puritan government and by the restored government of King Charles II. In 1684 William Penn and several other Quakers brought their slaves with them to Philadelphia. In Philadelphia,  William Penn and the Quakers profited from, the slave trade business in Pennsylvania.

In 1688, in Germantown PA, the First written Protest Against Slavery by non Africans was formally made in the United States of America. The Protest made by 2 Quakers, 1 Menonite, and a Lutheran Pietists, requested of Wlliam Penn and friends; in writing, to stop trafficking in the Slave Trade. William Penn objected to the protest. The result of William Penn objection, slavery was framed into the PA Constitution, thus being a legal practice in Pennyslvania.

In 1700 their were 1,000 enslaved Africans in Philadelphia

In 1721 their were 5,000 enslaved Africans in Philadelphia

In 1746 Absalom Jones was born

Prior to 1751 70% of the enslaved Africans were imported from the West Indies

After to 1751 70% of the enslaved Africans were imported from Africa

In 1754 their were 11,000 enslaved Africans in Philadelphia

In 1760 Richard Allen was born

In 1760 Africans slaves constituted 2/3 of the servant population in Philadelphia.

In 1766 Absalom attends Abolitionist Anthony Benezet’s school in the evenings.

In 1766 their were 30,000 enslaved Africans in Philadelphia

In 1768 Absalom Jones began evangelizing in the streets about the cruelty of slavery

March 5, 1770, Crispus Attucks, became the 1st casualty of the American Revolution

In 1774 Richard Allen attends Abolitionist Anthony Benezet’s school

In 1774 Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society was founded by Anthony Benezet,

In 1775, Society of Friends vowed to disown Quakers if they didn’t free their slaves

In 1775, Revolutionaries seized control of each of the thirteen colonial governments

On April 19 1775, the Revolutionary War began

January 1776, George Washington lift ban on black enlistment, 5,000 fought in the war

On July 4, 1776, Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence, in Phila.

Sept. 26, 1777 British Forces capture Phila; many African slaves escape after the evasion

In 1777, Rev. Allen began evangelizing in the streets of Phila., NY, and Delaware

June 18, 1778 British soldiers left Philadelphia; many slaves escape during the war

In 1780 Gradual Emancipation Act passed by PA Legislators, freeing Africans in 1808.

In 1780 Rev. Allen bought his freedom, he drove a wagon during the war, for a living.

In 1783, British Army evacuate New York & America, many slaves escape after the war.

In 1784, Absalom Jones at the age of 38 brought his freedom.

May 1, 1784, Rev. Allen meets Rev. Jones at 1st organizing conference of Am. Methodism.

In 1787, The Free African Society was founded by Rev. Allen, Rev. Jones and Quakers.

In 1788 the Gradual Emancipation Act admended by PA Legislators.

In 1790 their were 3,737 enslaved Africans in Philadelphia.

In 1791 the First Bank of the United States, build by slaves, founded in Philadelphia PA.

In 1791 to 1800 United States Supreme Court, housed in Philadelphia PA.

In 1792-1800 1st White House built by enslaved & free African-Americans, in Phila.

In 1792, Philadelphia is America’s largest city, capital, and its busiest port.

In 1792, Rev. Jones and Allen helped Dr Rush resolve Phila. Yellow Fevor Epedemic July 17, 1794. St Thomas African Episcopal Church opened its doors for public worship.

In 1797 Philadelphia’s first African-American Masonic Lodge was founded.

Dec. 30, 1799, Rev. Jones petition the House of Representatives to free all Africans.

In 1800 their were 1,706 enslaved Africans in Philadelphia.

Jan 1st 1808 Rev. Jones gives Thanksgiving Sermon, establishing a New Year Holiday.

In 1810 Nearly 10,000 Africans resides in Philadelphia

1818-1824 Second Bank in the United States was builded by free & slave labor, in Phila.

In 1820 their were 211 enslaved Africans in Philadelphia.

In 1830 their were 403 enslaved Africans in Philadelphia.

In 1840 their were 64 enslaved Africans in Philadelphia.

In 1850 their were 0 enslaved Africans in Philadelphia or Pennsylvania.

I have shared this historical timeline with you to make you aware of several historical facts, Quakers, the City of Philadelphia, the state of Pennsylvania, and this nation, prospered off of the backs of slaves. Slavery helped Philadelphia to become the financial and political capital of world. The decisions made in Philadelphia, especially the actions of the Quakers, impacted, the decisions made in the United States.

I have shared this historical timeline with you to show you the historical, spiritual, cultural, and political contributions Absalom Jones and Richard Allen made in history; especially in the degrees of freedom that you enjoy today. Slavery in Philadelphia rapidly increased, prior to Absalom and Richard Allen involvement in the African slavery issue; after their involvement in the African Freedom issue, slavery in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania rapidly decreased.

When Absalom Jones and Rev. Allen confronted the Quakers and the PA legislators concerning the issue of African freedom, they blinked. The Quakers were reminded of when they too were evangelizing in the streets of Europe, on the issue of spiritual freedom. They were reminded of their inner light theory, of God being within thee. Jones and Allen spiritual moral and cultural facts about Africans freedom rights led to Philadelphia and the PA legislative branch to enact and pass the PA Gradual Emancipation Act, the first legislative act, in the United States to free Africans.

Other than Rev. Allen and Rev. Jones, there were other factors which played a role in decreasing the amount of Africans enslaved in the state of Pennsylvania. The Gradual Emancipation Act, though it did not immediately abolished slavery in Philadelphia or Pennsylvania, or freed slaves outright, it did play a role in decreasing the amount of slaves in Philadelphia. Relics of slavery lingered in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, up to and after the Civil War.

The Quakers owned 70% of the slaves in Pennsylvania. After the Quakers freed their slaves, Philadelphia became one the most racist and violent cities in the nation. Violence against African-Americans was common during the 1830s, 40s, 50s, and early 60s. Deadly race riots in Philadelphia led to African American homes and churches being burned. In 1841, Joseph Sturge commented “…there is probably no city in the known world where dislike, amounting to the hatred of the colored population, prevails more than in the city of brotherly love! Despite the formation of several anti-slavery societies, and being a major stop on the Underground Railroad, much of Philadelphia was against the abolitionist movement. Abolitionists were also the target of violence which included several of their meetinghouses being burned. The Irish felt threaten that the free Africans would take their jobs and status.

The Civil War was not the first time, all African units, United States Color Troops (USCT), were formed, to fight in Americas wars. When George Washington lifted the ban on black enlistment in the Continental Army, small all-black units were formed, slaves were promised freedom for serving. Beside Crispus Attucks, over 5,000 Africans soldiers fought for the Continental Revolutionary cause, over 20,000 fought on the side of Britain. The Revolutionary War played a major factor in the decrease in the amount of enslaved Africans in Philadelphia. Many Africans escaped to freedom during and after the Revolutionary War.

About 400 to 1000 Africans went to London and joined the community of about 10,000 free blacks there. About 3500 to 4000 went to the British colonies of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, where the British provided many with land. Over 1,500 settled in Birchtown, Nova Scotia, instantly making it the largest free black community in North America. However about 1,500 were dissatisfied and left Nova Scotia for the new British colony of Sierra Leone in Africa after 1787, where they became part of the ruling elite.

What did the 4th of July have to do with the African? To the African-American the 4th of July, the foundation upon which America proudly stands on is built on lies. In Thomas Jefferson Declaration of Independence draft, he spoke of laws of Nature and of Natures God; how all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness; whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles. The facts are, Thomas Jefferson didnt believe his own words, when he drafted the Declaration of Independence, he had slaves before and after he drafted the document. There were many others who had their signature on that document who had slaves, before and after the draft was adopted on July 4th 1776. Should we call this document, you told a lie on the 4th.

Absalom Jones and Richard Allen were seasoned in the ideology of freedom at Anthony Benezet School. Two years before Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, in 1774; Anthony Benezet founded the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage. Most of its members were Quakers. The officers of the Society included Benjamin Franklin as president. Benjamin Rush served as the Society secretary, and later president (1803-13). Franklin and Rush signers of the Declaration of Independence, helped write the Society’s constitution. In 1775 the Society of Friends aggressively engaged in the practice to disown Quakers who participated in the practice of enslaving Africans.

Dr. Benjamin Rush played a major role in the emancipation of Africans in Pennsylvania. Dr. Rush was also involved in “An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, an Act to give Relief to Africans taking Refuge in Pennsylvania. He was also involved in the additional act of March 1788 amending the original act for gradual abolition in 1788, As a result of the efforts of Dr. Rush, and petitions from the Society of Friends, the Pennsylvania legislature amended the gradual abolition act of 1780, prohibiting the transportation of slave children or pregnant women out of Pennsylvania; making it illegal to build, outfit, or issue slave ships from Philadelphia; this document made it legal to impose heavy fines on those who imported slaves into Pennsylvania.

Two hundred and forty Africans in Philadelphia died from the largest yellow fever epidemic in American history, which killed as many as 5,000 people in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania roughly 10% of the population. During the epidemic over 20,000, almost half of the city population fled the city, along with members of Congress, President Washington and his Cabinet. Dr. Benjamin Rush, the city’s leading physician and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, solicited and received help from Allen, Jones, and the African-American community. The African Community handled the yellow fever victims, when no one else would. They helped comfort and save the afflicted, with their natural remedies. The yellow fever problem lasted 1 year. Dr. Rush showed his gratitude to Rev. Allen and Rev. Jones by financially contributing to the building of the First and Second African Church in PA, Mother Bethel AME Church, Rev. Allen, the pastor, and St. Thomas African Episcopal Church, Rev. Jones, the pastor.

It was the Sermons of Rev Absalom Jones, Rev Allen, Frederick Douglas, and their Watch Night Service/Freedom Day Service Pastors, that prepared the African for the moment when Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation, though it did not free a single African, afforded the African the opportunity to man union forts, process armory. The historical timeline above points out that in 1950 there were 0 slaves in PA. The Emancipation Proclamation allowed the African to go into the grass roots of America communities to free and reunite members of their immediate and extended family.

The by-product of slavery, Africans assimilating in with the ways in the world, and the task master recording his-story, not the descendants from African history, has caused Black America, to abandon their ancestors traditional ways; those that have, and had, spiritual, moral, cultural value; those that needed not to be fixed with the ways in the world, for they were not broken. African-Americans historic Freedom Day Celebration was replaced with the Mummers Parade, drinking, clubbing, and fireworks. The action of the Task-Master to withhold information from you, and the actions of descendants from Africa to abandon their ancestors, scared traditional holiday practices, is directly linked to the holistic crises Black America is in today.

The Willie Lynch brainwashing, and the now you are free, and now you are not free, tease games, Africans experienced, contributed to many ancestors giving up, and giving into the ways in the world. There are many who believe or recite that African-Americans are better off today than they were during or before the days of slavery. The facts are, year after year, as my mighty race assimilates in with the ways in the world, we reached all time statistical highs in unhealthy areas, more with aides, more murders, more mental health victims, more dying with heart attacks, more dying with cancer, more dying with prostate cancer, more addicted to cocaine, more addicted to heroin, more addicted to gambling, more incest victims, on and on and on. Are you kidding? The State of Black America is not getting better, its getting worst. The choice of our ancestors, our grandparents, our parents, and the choice of oneself, to assimilate in with the ways in the world, to abandon our ancestors blueprint to freedom, has led my African-American brothers and sisters, down the path of catastrophic destruction. And you ponder on the question, why our young are killing our young in the streets of Philadelphia, the streets of America, at an alarming rate.

Africans did not immediately receive their physical freedom in America, as a result of the Gradual Emancipation Act. Africans did not immediately receive their physical freedom in America, as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation. Africans freedom came as result of the prayers and empowering speeches of the Watch Night Service and Freedom Day attendants. African freedom came as a result of Juneteenth; Africans embarking on a freedom mission, going into America communities to free and reunite their family members, and reunite this nation. The history of Watch Night Service, New Year Freedom Day, and Juneteenth are inter-connected on the issue of African enslavement in Philadelphia and African enslavement in America.

My Brethren, PJC ask of you to join us in rekindling the flame of our ancestors, spiritual gateways to holistic freedom, Watch Night Service/Freedom Eve, New Year/Freedom Day, and Juneteenth. We ask that you, on the eve and day of our ancestors 200th holy-day (holiday) anniversary, to celebrate these days as our ancestors instructed us to do. We were instructed by our ancestors to, on December 31st, go into our faith based institutions to repair the holy-spirit within, and make a resolution and a plan to shed our degrees of slavery, our ways in the world. Our ancestors instructed us to on Jan 1st, give thanksgiving to thy God for thy glory, favor, and thy mercy. Our ancestors asked us to revisit biblical, past, and present slavery; to re-examine from whence thy came, what rock thy crawled from under, and what pit thy digged.

My Brethren, in revisiting our past, we are reminded that before the Mayflower, and before the Amistad, our ancestors did not come to the shores of America as prostitutes, gays, addicted to crack and alcohol. Our ancestors did not come to America with aides, herpes, depression, schizophrenia. The facts are, African-Americans acquired these attributes after assimilating in with the ways, of our slave master, and the ways of our slave masters descendants.

We have painted a picture for the need of some form of reparation, if not just an apology, which is respectfully due to the African, for the horrific treatment they experienced at the hands of their slave master. Now lets us, for at least a moment, stop pointing the finger at the descendants of our slave master, and look within. When we point one finger out, three fingers are pointed back at us, and one is pointed up at our creator. In the bible it talks about, if you judge another, you will be judged. Though I believe that some form of reparations is due to our mighty race; I also believe that we must on the anniversary of our ancestor, turn inwards and make reparation within. Shall we together face the fact that Black America is in a state of crisis. Shall we together face the fact that in order for us to be able to do something about the repairing of our mighty race. We must first understand what is it that we must do to bring about internal reparation. Our ancestors gave us a gateway, spiritual and cultural practices observed on the eve and day of the New Year; practices that will help one to achieve degrees of holistic freedom; practices that will help one to achieve internal reparation; practices that will help one to cleanse ones temple, cleanse ones inner spirit. Our ancestors gave us our medicine, Watch Night Service and New Year Freedom Day.

We ask of you to please join PJC in celebrating Dec 31st and January 1st as our ancestors celebrated them, on Watch Night Service/Freedom Eve, 155 years ago, and on New Year Freedom Day, 200 years ago, with the sermons, the lessons, the psalms, the prayers and the praises in the worship of these holidays

Peace and Blessing

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