Bloomsbury, St George & the Emperor

This is St George’s Church in Bloomsbury, as eighteenth-century a compliment to classical architecture as one shall find.  

In 1937, however, it was visited by a man claimed by millions to be a reincarnation of Jesus Christ Himself- Haile Selassie. He was emperor of Ethiopia and officially a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, while claiming decent from the Queen of Sheba. Yet Rastafarians of Jamaica considered him the Messiah of the black peoples, who would liberate them from the bastions of colonialism and slavery to which their ancestors had been exiled. Selassie was aware of the claims made about him, and seems to have attempted to deny them:

“…that they should never make a mistake in assuming or pretending that a human being is emanated from a deity”,

while also asking:

"Who am I to disturb their belief?"

The reasons for the emperor’s visit to St George’s was to commemorate the dead during that year’s fascist invasion of his ancient African kingdom. He who could not keep Mussolini out of Abyssinia can neither procure admittance to heaven. Oppressed peoples will always look for political and social heroes to whom their hopes may be pinned. Only Jesus Christ, however, the true and original deliverer and Messiah, may offer meaning, liberation, hope and satisfaction. Whether you are black or white, male or female, rich or poor- Jesus the Jew is the one through whom you must pass.

Cover credit: International, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons