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‘It took a while, but I’m here’: Denzel Washington is baptised before his 70th birthday

The Oscar-winning actor has previously spoken about his religious beliefs saying ‘it’s not talked about in this town but that doesn’t mean people in Hollywood don’t believe’

The service was livestreamed on Facebook, showing Washington, wearing a white robe, being immersed in the church’s ritual pool and being presented with a certificate of baptism. Mentioning he was about to turn 70 on 28 December, Washington told the congregation: “It took a while, but I’m here.” He also spoke about an incident when he was 20 in which he encountered a woman called Ruth Green in his mother’s beauty parlour, who told him: “Boy, you are going to travel the world and preach to millions of people.” In an interview with Esquire in November, Washington described his moment of religious awakening in the early 1980s in a church in Los Angeles.

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