Black Jesus painting to go in one of UK’s oldest cathedrals

A print of a Black Jesus painting will be installed in one of Britain’s oldest churches as a tribute to the Black Lives Matter movement.

The painting is a version of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”, with Jesus recast as a black prophet.

Called “A Last Supper,” the reinterpretation of the original 15th-century artwork was painted by British painter Lorna May Wadsworth.

The artist hired a Jamaican model, Tafari Hinds, to pose as Jesus.

The 2.7-metre print will be installed at the alter of St. Albans Cathedral in Hertfordshire. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby prompted the installation.

The Rev. Dr. Jeffrey John, who is the dean of St. Albans says the church is not in a strong position to preach to others about justice, racial or otherwise.

“But our faith teaches that we are all made equally in the image of God – and that God is a God of justice.”

The church decided to transform the altar because “black lives matter,” he says.

Welby also recently asked Church of England officials to consider the strong likelihood that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was not white.

Furthermore, he is challenging churchgoers to embrace the many representations of Jesus, regardless of the Messiah’s depicted ethnicity.

“Jesus was Middle Eastern, not white. It’s important we remember this,” Welby tweeted last Saturday.

“But the God we worship in Christ is universal and the hope he offers is good news for us all.”

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