Most people know Philadelphia as the birth place of liberty —
the place where concepts like freedom of speech and Democracy
were perfected. But Jay Worrall of Arch Street Friends Meeting
House in Old City, points out that Philadelphia is also the
birth place of Religious Freedom. “William Penn and the Quakers
of Pennsylvania were the only colony where multiple religions
were tolerated, where it was an official act of law that anyone
could come and establish any church of any kind in Philadelphia.
And that was not true in any other colony or, for that matter,
in any other country in the world. And so, the whole notion of
religious freedom and separation of church and state began in
Philadelphia from its very founding.” Visitors to the Meeting
House at Fourth and Arch streets will walk through historic
halls and even sit on some, well, historic seats. “Some of these
benches are almost three hundred years old and the cushions have
the original stuffing. They were all done in 1811, and the
stuffing is horse hair.