Bishops and clergy bless the new “Homeless Jesus” bronze statue outside of St. Marks United Methodist Church in Charleston Sunday.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Walk down Washington Street in downtown Charleston, across the street from the post office, and you’ll come to a bronze park bench that wasn’t there last week. You may be hesitant to take a seat. There’s a man, who looks to be homeless, asleep on the bench.
Take another look. The man is also bronze, part of a sculpture.
His knees and arms are pulled toward his chest, huddled for warmth. His face is shrouded by a blanket.
Take a third look. The seemingly anonymous man has one identifying characteristic: A hole in the top of each foot, evidence of where, Christians believe, the man was nailed to a cross 2,000 years ago.
“We meet you, oh Christ, in many a guise,” the Rev. Monty Brown said Sunday as he consecrated the new statue, “Homeless Jesus,” outside St. Marks United Methodist Church.
Charleston is the fifth American city and the eighth worldwide to get one of the statues, first cast in 2012 by the Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz.
Brown, the church’s senior pastor, said he got the idea to bring the sculpture to the church after hearing of one earlier this year in North Carolina. An anonymous donor stepped up…
