PAGE 6 — The Georgia Bulletin, February 12. 1987
Shroud Of Turin
Exhibit Needs New
Home
(Continued from page 1)
of a crucified man. This research provides evidence that
the Shroud had been wrapped around a body, rather than
being an artistic rendering.
Pope John Paul II recently gave consent to a series of
new tests involving Carbon 14 dating and neutron activation
measurement. These new tests will attempt to date the
origin of the Shroud.
Until now, Carbon 14 measurement — which involves the
burning of a part of the Shroud — was not considered suffi
ciently reliable in dating an artifact. Earlier procedures for
Carbon 14 testing also would have necessitated removal of a
large portion of the cloth. New advances in technology have
overcome these problems.
The upcoming tests will be conducted this spring, with
results to be delivered to the Archbishop of Turin by early
1988. The scientific objective is solely to date the Shroud,
not to prove whether it actually belonged to Jesus.
The prestigious British Museum will supervise the pro
ject. The research will be conducted at seven laboratories:
the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History
of Art at Oxford University; the Atomic Energy Research
Establishment in Harwell. England; the Brookhaven Na
tional Laboratory, New York; the Nuclear Structure
Research Laboratory of the University of Rochester, New
York; the Department of Physics, Arizona State Universi
ty; the Institute of Physics, Zurich, Switzerland; and the
Radio-Carbon Laboratory in Villeurbanne, France.
Seventy tiny pieces of the Shroud will be tested. In addi
tion, some participating laboratories will be issued similar
but inauthentic pieces of linen in order to assure validity of
the tests. Scientists estimate that a dating by this method
could be as accurate as within 25 years of the date or as dis
tant as 150 years of the date.
Father Dreisbach initially approached the Shroud as a
skeptic. "Most of us today pride ourselves on being ra
tional empiricists'," he says. “‘Unless I see, I will not
believe,' could be our motto."
“But the more I studied the Shroud, the more I became
convinced of its authenticity," says Father Dreisbach.
The Atlanta International Center for Continuing Study
and Exhibit of the Shroud of Turin Inc. began as a study
group hosting a traveling exhibit on the Shroud in late 1982.
Although the exhibit was scheduled to last only 30 days, it
has never left. Housed first at Peachtree Center, then, since
spring of 1983, at the Omni complex, the center is in search
of a new home.
“We're looking for approximately 8.000 to 10,000 square
feet of space to display the exhibit and house the publica
tions and offices of the center," explains Father Dreisbach.
“The center’s role is to display for the public what
previously only a privileged few were graced to have seen.
We have drawn people from all over the world," he con
tinues. “Catholics, Lutherans, Orthodox, and last
Christmas Eve, a number of Islamic students at a national
convention here toured the exhibit."
Father Dreisbach often wonders why he, an Episcopalian
priest, was called to this work.
“I wrestled with God for two years to see if I should for
sake the parish in southwest Atlanta which I loved and had
served in for 13 years," he recalls. "It took more faith to
step out into this particular ministry than it did in the '60’s
for me to march in Selma....It has taken more faith to do
this work.
“A local Catholic priest once said to me that perhaps I
was called to this work because I am Anglican. He said that
if I were a Roman priest, the general public could dismiss
this work because, ‘Romans have to believe these things
(miracles and the veneration of relics).’ But they wouldn’t
think this of an Episcopalian.”
Father Dreisbach sees three reasons for what he calls the
“Apostolate of the Holy Shroud”: its value for Christian
education, for evangelism and for ecumenism.
The late British Anglican Bishop John A T. Robinson
once expressed his belief that the Shroud gives modern men
and women the opportunity to see what Peter and the
disciples saw on Easter morning in the empty tomb. Father
Dreisbach recalls Robinson saying, “(The Shroud) confers
no special privilege but a special obligation to go beyond the
empty tomb to the world for which Jesus gave his life."
The Shroud is a visual evangelism, according to Father
Dreisbach. “We can identify with this man whose image we
see (on the Shroud). I can recall a little girl brought here to
the exhibit on the day of her Confirmation. As she was leav
ing with her parents, she remarked, ‘I never knew he hurt
so much for us. I’m going to try to be better for him
Father Dreisbach sees the Shroud as an ecumenical
bond. “It focuses on the essence of the Christian faith: the
passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Not on the
kind of collar a priest or minister wears; whether it’s wine
or grape juice for communion; or whether one has stained
glass or plain glass windows in church."
“The Shroud needs no one to promulgate its
significance,” he says. “My apostolate is simply to ‘give
grace a chance’."
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The London Times in an
editorial on the Shroud (Oc
tober 16, 1986) proposes an
interesting hypothesis:
"An authentic Turin Shroud
is too amazing an object to
have been left in the tomb
by accident, perchance to
have survived until scien
tific progress could reach a
point where it could unlock
the secret. It is almost as if
God had calculated that
some 2.000 years ahead
science would have replac
ed theology as the
commonly-accepted ar
biter of truth, and planned
accordingly."
IFurther information on
the exhibit may be obtain
ed by calling 577-5590.1
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3542 Satellite Blvd.
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