Tindley, Charles Albert
b: July 7, 1851; Berlin, Maryland
d: July 26, 1933; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Early Years
- Son of slaves Charles and Esther Tindley
- Lost his mother when he was four, separated from his father when he was five
- Taught himself to read and write
- Worked as an unskilled labourer and a janitor at Bainbridge Street Methodist Episcopal Church
Education
- Studied at a night school as well learning Greek and Hebrew via a correspondence course
Highlights & Accomplishments
- Accepted as a probationer at Cape May, New Jersey (1885)
- Served as a deacon at South Wilmington, Delaware
- Served in circuits (a group of local Methodist churches forming an administrative unit) in Maryland and Delaware
- Became a minister of Bainbridge Street Church, Philadelphia, where he had formerly been the janitor, in 1900
- The church was renamed East Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church under Tindley’s ministry. It became the most important black church in Philadelphia, with a congregation of African Americans, people of European origin, and Hispanics. It was rebuilt on a larger scale in 1924. After his death, the church was renamed Tindley Temple Methodist Episcopal Church.
- Nicknamed the “prince of preachers”
- Regarded as one of the founding fathers of gospel hymnody
- Published his sermons (A Book of Sermons, 1932), and hymns (New Songs of Paradise, 1916)
- After his death, The Poems and Writing of the Late Rev. Chas. Albert Tindley (1934) was published. It contained his complete work.
Hymns included in the Seventh-Day Adventist Hymnal
JRW/CY. “Charles Albert Tindley.” The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press, accessed August 1, 2017, http://www.hymnology.co.uk/c/charles-albert-tindley.
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