Today, we had the pleasure of visiting the historic Christ Church in Philadelphia. It is an Episcopal church, located by the Delaware near Market St. The Christ Church tradition welcomes all people, from all walks of life, wherever they are on their journey of faith.
In the courtyard at the entrance, there were multiple slabs that marked important historicals bodies buried beneath them. Some of these slabs were moved closer to the church, and the people beneath them reburied, because the city needed space to expand the street. We also saw similar slabs on the floor inside the church.
We learned a lot about the history and construction of the church. It was originally built much smaller than it is now and later expanded. Something interesting about this church is that the architects behind the building were never official architects, but rather lawyers and doctors who had learned through books. Furthermore, we learned about some of the common church practices at the time, such as the renting of pews and the removal of the Prayer to the King.
When we went to the back, we saw the graveyard and learned about the fact that one of the people buried there was a famous slave owner and how the church is attempting to acknowledge its past of benefiting from slavery. Christ Church is a place of history, and it was interesting to see how the legacy of those who once attended here was reflected in the architecture and burial grounds.
As we came into the Arch Street Meeting House we were greeted by Mrs. Jackie Zemaitis, who is the mother of our Quakerism teacher, Dr. Dan Zemaitis. After a period of time given for lunch we were tasked with finding an item or place in the meeting house that interested us. First exhibit we were shown was a death sled from the 1700s that was found in the attic of the Arch Street Meeting House. The sled was used for carrying the dead in and out of the burial site.
After viewing some more of the exhibitions that were in the men’s meeting room, we then moved to the women’s meeting room where we sat down for a lecture from Jackie Zemaitis. The reason for the separation of men’s and women’s meeting was because early Quakers thought that women would benefit from being separated from the men. Modern Quakers obviously do not partake in this practice anymore, but the Arch Street Meeting House was built around this way of worship. During the lecture Mrs. Zemaitis explained to us deeper knowledge of worship functioning and interesting facts and history about the meeting house itself, like how the pillows are made out of horse hair. She also showed us the soundboard above the front-facing benches, which is something the Moorestown Meeting House doesn’t have.
Following the brief lecture by Mrs. Zemaitis, there were multiple piano performances by MFS students. Mrs Zemaitis explained to us the difference between the men’s and women’s staircases and then showed us the basement of the meeting house. We learned that there are over 20,000 people buried on the property, many of them Quakers, but not all.
We were then shown the current meeting room that is used by the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting where they converged this past Sunday. We were also shown an interactive map that allowed us to see all the Quaker Meetings across North and South America. This map was inside the main lobby. In the men’s worship room, we had the opportunity to write on Post-It notes about how we can better people’s lives. When it came time to leave the entire staff gave us a warm goodbye and pleasant sendoff.
