Religious leaders in the Richmond, VA communites as well as Christians and Jews around the country were outraged about the controversial ceremony that took place at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church on Sunday, January 29, 2012.
Bishop Eddie Long, pastor of the megachurch in Georgia was called a king in a Jewish ritual.
Now he has apologized for the service that was not well received by Jewish groups and religious scholars.
According to Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bishop Long wrote in a letter to Bill Nigut, Southeast Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League:
"The ceremony was not my suggestion, nor was it my intent, to participate in any ritual that is offensive in any manner to the Jewish community. I denounce any action that depicts me as a king, for I am merely just a servant of the Lord."
The service was viewed by nearly 600,000 people on YouTube. It showed Long being wrapped in a sacred Torah scroll and carried upon a throne. "He's a king. God has blessed him," said Colorado Rabbi Ralph Messer before covering Long in a scroll "[that] may still have the dust of Auschwitz and Birkenau."
Messer referred to the Nazi extermination camps in Poland where millions of Jews were murdered during the Holocaust.
Nigut, who said he was "horrified" by the service, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he appreciated the bishop's apology.
Nigut also said:
"For the ADL it's a real wake-up call that a lot of people do not understand our liturgies and practices. Guys like Messer are troubling to us because they appropriate real ritual or, in this case, make one up."
Messer, who has no formal rabbinical training, is active in the Messianic Judaism movement, which fuses evangelical Christian beliefs with elements of Jewish tradition.
Jamal-Dominique Hopkins, associate professor of Biblical studies at Interdenominational Theological Center, said:
"The ceremony was something I’ve never seen or read within the Judeo-Christian tradition."
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