The ceremony went on, however, and even with hundreds of visitors that day, no one who attended came down with COVID 19. Believers had to be satisfied with being able to be in close proximity to the crucifix only. The bishop, the statue’s 11 chosen attendants and everyone else in attendance wore masks and tried – albeit unsuccessfully – to adhere to social distancing protocols. Ushers in surgical masks shepherded pilgrims and the curious through a sanitization tent outside where people were asked to wash and disinfect their hands. The life-size black Christ was put in an enclosure, and for the first time in its history the faithful were not allowed to touch it or kiss it, as in other years.

The solemn ceremony in the Campeche church taking place in the year 2020 was unlike any other in the previous 454 years. This was done to commemorate the martyrdom of the statue’s patron, Saint Romanus, a Roman soldier in the legion of Emperor Valerian who converted to Christianity and was beheaded on August 9th in the year 258. Every year at noon on August 9 th for the past 455 years, 11 faithful people would take down the black statue of Christ from its place above the altar and move it to the center of the church for public veneration. The Bishop of Campeche, José Francisco González González presided over the annual taking down or descent of one of the region’s most venerated religious objects, the Cristo Negro de San Román.

She is also the Canon Theologian at the Washington National Cathedral. Kelly Delaine Brown Douglas is an African-American Episcopal priest, womanist theologian, and the inaugural Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary. Beginning with the early testimonies of the enslaved, through the writings and thought of religious and literary figures, voices from the Civil Rights and Black Power era, including Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, up through the contemporary work of Black and Womanist theologians, Douglas presents a living tradition that speaks powerfully to the message of our day: Black Lives Matter. In this classic work, first published in 1994, Kelly Brown Douglas offers a compelling portrait of who Jesus is for the Black community. If you would like to be a part of this book study you can sign up for it at or you can email to be added to the list. On Monday, February 27th, 2023 at 7 pm Trinity will have a Zoom book study on 'The Black Christ' the 25th Anniversary Edition by Kelly Brown Douglas.

The Black Christ by Kelly Brown Douglas