Denzel Washington got baptized and became a minister during a live-streamed ceremony on Saturday (December 21).
According to PEOPLE, Washington, 69, was baptized at the Kelly Temple Church of God in Christ, located in Harlem, New York. Video of the ceremony livestreamed on Facebook showed the actor wearing a gray T-shirt and black sweatpants as he was immersed in baptimisal water.
He was also presented with his certificate of baptism and minister license, which will allow him to be ordained in the future.
During the ceremony, Washington spoke out embracing his faith ahead of his 70th birthday.
"In one week I turn 70,” he said, per Page Six. “It took a while but I'm here."
“If [God] can do this for me, there’s nothing He can’t do for you. The sky literally is the limit,” Washington added.
Washington's wife, Pauletta, also attended the ceremony, appearing emotional as she talked about her husband's spiritual journey.
“Forty-six years later, here I’m still standing next to him as only God will have it,” Pauletta said. “So I’m very proud of you. You are the head of our house and you have set a great example for our children, who are now adult children who know the difference because we have shown them the difference.”
Washington previously opened up about his religious journey in a personal essay for Esquire. The actor said his first visit to the Pentecostal West Angeles Church in Los Angeles was "the biggest moment of my life."
"Things I said about God when I was a little boy, just reciting them in church along with everybody else, I know now. God is real. God is love. God is the only way. God is the true way. God blesses. It’s my job to lift God up, to give Him praise, to make sure that anyone and everyone I speak to the rest of my life understands that He is responsible for me," Washington wrote in his Esquire essay.
"When you see me, you see the best I could do with what I’ve been given by my lord and savior. I’m unafraid. I don’t care what anyone thinks," he continued. "See, talking about the fear part of it — you can’t talk like that and win Oscars. You can’t talk like that and party. You can’t say that in this town."
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