Date/Time
Date(s) - 03/22/2026
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Location
Historic St. George's United Methodist Church
Categories
To observe Women’s History Month, Interfaith Philadelphia will celebrate Colonial-era female trailblazers connected to religion. Discover how women, some of them little known, contributed to the Revolutionary War efforts in an insightful conversation called Religious Freedom: Then & Now. It is part of an initiative diving into 250 years of interfaith engagement and understanding in Philadelphia.
Learn about key historical figures like Jarena Lee and Phillis Wheatley. Wheatley was an American writer and the first African American author to publish a book of poetry in 1773. The enslaved Wheatley employed classical and biblical allusions, critiquing slavery while exploring faith, freedom, and identity. She garnered world acclaim and eventually her freedom. She was educated by her owners in Boston and became a celebrated literary figure who corresponded with George Washington. Lee was the first female preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She was born into a free Black family in New Jersey. She asked the founder of the AME Church, Richard Allen, to be a preacher, which led to her being recognized as the first woman to be ordained as an evangelist in the heavily male-dominated African Methodist Episcopal Church. Free but pre-register, 2 p.m. EST to 4 p.m. EST. Historic St. George’s United Methodist Church, 235 N. 4th St. Email: info@interfaithphiladelphia.org, 215-222-1012 or https://www.interfaithphiladelphia.org/phila250_saintgeorge/