It is hard to imagine that two black members of the St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia were asked — in the middle of prayer — to move from the church sanctuary to the balcony, where blacks were supposed to worship.

        Instead of going to the balcony, Absalom Jones and Richard Allen walked out.

        Mr. Jones went on to become the Episcopal Church's first African-American priest in 1802. He also helped found the Prince Hall Masons and the National Insurance Association.

        Mr. Allen was ordained a deacon in 1799. He founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

        The church eventually lifted its ban on blacks sitting in the sanctuary, partly because of Mr. Jones and Mr. Allen, the first black Americans to receive formal ordination by any denomination.

        That was 216 years ago. At 10:30 a.m. Sunday,the story of Mr. Jones and Mr. Allen will be told again to kick off Black History Month at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 1808 Rutland Ave., in Evanston.

        The Rev. Dr. Taylor Thompson, senior pastor of Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church in Forest Park, will relate their story. He is president of the Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition of Cincinnati.

        The Mass Sunday will include gospel music by St. Andrew's Episcopal Church choir, the only interracial gospel choir based in an Episcopal church in Cincinnati.

       • • •

        The Anthony House, a shelter for homeless teens in Over-the-Rhine, will get help from Milford students enrolled in the Opportunity School, one of two schools at Milford's Success Academy. The junior and senior high students are collecting clothing, canned goods and toiletries for the agency.

        In addition, the fifth- and sixth-graders at Milford Main Middle School are in the middle of a “Penny Challenge,” a student council project to raise money for juvenile diabetes research.

       Allen Howard's “Some Good News” column runs Sunday through Friday. Contact him at (513) 768-8362; at ahoward@enquirer.com; or by fax at (513) 768-8340.
               

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