The Rev. Peter Williams Cassey was the first person of color ordained in the Episcopal Church West of the Mississippi River at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in 1866. Peter arrived in San Francisco in 1863, and became a leader in the Underground Railroad and community organizer of blacks throughout the state. He and his wife, Anna Besant Cassey, founded St. Philip’s Mission, the first black church in San Jose, and St. Philip’s Academy and the Phoenixonian Institute, the first secondary school for children of color in California in 1862.   Resolutions have been adopted in the Episcopal dioceses of El Camino Real, California, Los Angeles and Florida to commend Peter and Anna into the calendar of saints with hopeful adoption by the whole Episcopal Church at its General Convention this coming July.

Sunday morning, April 19, will feature a Eucharistic Service of Worship at 10:30 am commemorating Rev. Peter and Anna Besant Cassey at Trinity Cathedral, 81 North 2nd Street, San Jose. Preacher for the service will be the Rev. Canon Jamesetta Hammons of the Diocese of Los Angeles, Secretary/Treasurer of the Belfield Hannibal Chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians. At 2:00 pm, there will be a graveside commemoration at the graves of Anna Besant Cassey and Henrietta Lockwood in Oak Hill Memorial Park, 300 Curtner Avenue at Monterey Highway, San Jose.

All are cordially invited; all beliefs or disbeliefs are embraced