Philadelphia - St George's United Methodist Church

St George's United Methodist Church is America's oldest Methodist church. In 1763, the church belonged to a German Reformed Congregation that became financially strapped. Eventually it was sold to the Methodists in 1769.

The site hosted the first three conferences on American Methodism in the mid-1770s and was an early publisher of books in Philadelphia. In keeping with William Penn's tradition of religious and racial toleration, blacks were allowed to worship at St. George's. However, black services were held separately and at five in the morning.

The church sired the first licensed black Methodist preacher while another black preacher, Absalom Jones, founded the African Protestant Episcopal Church after a rift with the