A nearly 150-year-old church decoration of stained glass depicting Jesus and other figures with dark skin is attracting the attention of many Americans, AP reported May 14.
This stained glass was installed at St. Mark ‘s in Warren, Rhode Island since 1878. This is one of the first decorative stained-glass panels depicting Jesus as a colored man .
The decorative glass panel depicts a colored image of Jesus Christ. (Photo: AP).
“That window is unique and quite extraordinary,” said professor Virginia Raguin at the University of the Holy Cross (Worcester, Massachusetts). “I never saw this symbol in that era.”
The glass panel is about 3.7 x 1.5 m and also depicts the scene of Jesus talking to women in the Bible. These people also have dark skin.
The glass panel was forgotten until it was discovered by the new owner of the building in 2020. Before that, the church was closed in 2010 after 180 years of operation.
The owner was surprised when he discovered the skin color of the characters.
“The color of the skin is completely unlike the white Jesus you usually see,” said Hadley Arnold, the new owner of the building, who is also an architecture lecturer.
Professor Raguin and other experts confirm the skin tones of the characters are original and purposeful.
Arnold thinks that the skin color on the glass represents the origin of Jesus from the Middle East. However, some people have a different opinion.
“As an American with both African and Native blood, I think (the glass) represents both,” said Linda A’Vant-Deishinni, former Executive Director of the Rhode Island Black Heritage Community , speak.
Victoria Johnson, a former school principal in Rhode Island, said the figure on the glass was “almost certainly black”.
“(The glass) was made at a time when white churches in the North only knew black people,” she said.