The Heritage Murals at The African Episcopal Church of Saint Thomas (1792) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are a series of six large-scale paintings that Robert Moore created to honor church founder, the Reverend Absalom Jones, and to celebrate the spiritual legacy of this African American church. 

 

Absalom Jones was born into slavery in Delaware in 1746. During his life, he became one of the most prominent African American leaders in the post‑revolutionary war period. Although enslaved, he taught himself to read, and when brought to Philadelphia by his master, the teenaged Jones served as a clerk and handyman in a retail store. He was allowed to work for himself in the evenings and to keep his earnings. By the time he was 38 years old, he was able to purchase his enslaved wife's freedom. Soon after, he purchased his own.

 

During this period, he met Richard Allen, who was also a former slave and community leader. They grew to be life‑long friends. In 1787, the pair organized the Free African Society, a social, political and humanitarian organization, helping widows and orphans, and assisting in sick relief and burial expenses. Jones and Allen became lay preachers at the interracial congregation of St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church. Their evangelical efforts were met with great success and the congregation multiplied tenfold. Due to increased racial tensions at the church, they ultimately led the African congregation in a historic walkout.

 

In 1792, under the dual leadership of Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, the African Church was organized as a direct outgrowth of the Free African Society. Both Jones and Allen wished to affiliate with the Methodists, but the majority of the congregation favored the Episcopal Church. Richard Allen withdrew with a portion of the congregation to found Bethel Church, later Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) denomination. The African Church then became the African Episcopal Church of Saint Thomas, with Absalom Jones as its lay reader and deacon. In 1804, he was ordained as the first African American Episcopal priest.

 

Through the Heritage Murals, Robert Moore celebrates St. Thomas's mission to sustain the humanitarianism, dignity, and community outreach inspired by its founder. The murals are permanently exhibited in the church's Great Hall.