Shroud Encounter, a production of the Shroud of Turin Education Project, Inc., will be coming to St. Brendan the Navigator Parish in Avalon later this month.
The presentations use over 200 images covering different aspects of Shroud research. A museum quality life-size replica will be on display.
Russ Breault, the presenter, has been featured in several national documentaries seen on CBS, History Channel and Discovery. He was interviewed last year for Good Morning America to discuss the latest research. He has presented at numerous colleges and universities, including Duke, Johns Hopkins, Penn State and many others.
The Shroud of Turin is a 14-foot long linen cloth that has been in Turin, Italy for over 400 years and bears the faint front and back image of a 5’10” bearded man with apparent wounds and bloodstains that match the crucifixion account as recorded in the Bible. Millions believe it be the actual burial shroud of Jesus. The historical trail tracks back through Italy, France, Asia Minor (Turkey) and may have originated in the Middle East according to botanical evidence.
The Shroud was largely dismissed in 1988 when three carbon dating labs indicated a medieval origin.
But in a paper published in 2005, chemist Raymond Rogers, member of the Shroud of Turin research project in 1978, challenged the claim that the shroud is a fake. He said the sample used in the 1988 carbon testing was a piece used to mend the cloth in the Middle Ages and that the methodology of the testing was erroneous.
Even with modern scientific technology, the Shroud of Turin continues to baffle researchers.
Barrie Schwortz was the documenting photographer for the Shroud of Turin research project in 1978.
“Our team went to Turin to answer one simple question: How was the image formed?” Schwortz said. “Ultimately, we failed.
“We could tell you what it’s not – not a painting, not a photograph, not a scorch, not a rubbing – but we know of no mechanism to this day that can make an image with the same chemical and physical properties as the image on the shroud.”
Shroud Encounter will cover all aspects of the history, science, art and theories of how the image may have been formed. For more information go to www.ShroudEncounter.com.
If you go:
Shroud Encounter will be held at St. Brendan the Navigator Parish, 5012 Dune Drive in Avalon, on Saturday, June 28, and Sunday, June 29, at 7 p.m. each night. Admission is $10.
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