Denzel Washington is baptized in the New York City Church

Denzel Washington celebrated a milestone in his faith journey over the weekend.

The “Gladiator II” star, 69, was baptized Saturday, Dec. 21, at the Kelly Temple Church of God in Christ, located in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City.

The First Jurisdiction Church of God in Christ Eastern New York live streamed the service Facebookincluding the special moment he was baptized and later received his baptismal certificate.

During the service, Washington was also presented with a ministerial license, which will allow him to be ordained in the future.

When handed the microphone to reflect on the momentous event, Washington officially acknowledged claiming his faith at his age.

“I’ll be 70 in a week,” he said. “It took a while, but I’m here.”

Later in the service, the actor recalled a story from when he was 20 and sitting in his mother’s beauty salon when he ran into a woman named Ruth Green.

“She said, ‘Boy, you’re going to travel the world and preach to millions of people,'” he recalled. “She wouldn’t even spell the word prophecy. My mother spelled the word prophecy…50 years later, look at God. If He can do this for me, there’s nothing He can’t do for you. The sky is literally the limit, and there is no limit to the sky.”

Washington then expressed his gratitude to his “loving, faithful wife,” Pauletta Washington, who was there supporting him from the congregation.

“To God be the glory. Hallelujah!” he continued. “All that I can do, I will do for this church, the Almighty. I just want to be in that number when the saints march.”

Washington previously opened up about his faith in a November essay for Esquireand reflected on how he grew up going to church, but after witnessing altar calls and “people being saved,” he “didn’t really know” what was happening when he was young.

He described the “biggest moment” of his life as happening at the West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles, where he was lit by actor and director Robert Townsend.

“Things I said about God when I was a little boy, just reciting them in church with everyone else, I know now,” he said in the essay. “God is real. God is love. God is the only way. God is the true way. God blesses.”

He added, “It’s my job to lift God up, to give him praise, to make sure that everyone and anyone I talk to for the rest of my life understands that he’s responsible for me.”

Washington added that he was “not afraid” of the public’s reaction to his faith, adding, “I don’t care what anybody thinks.”

“Look, when you talk about the fear part of it — you can’t talk like that and win Oscars,” he said at the time. “You can’t talk like that and party. You can’t say that in this city.”