Shroud replica comes to Thorpe

The Lutheran Church of St. John hosted a special presentation Thursday featuring a life-size replica of the Shroud of Turin, a 14-foot length of linen some believe was used during Jesus Christ’s burial.

The event started with an hourlong public showing, where community members like Jane McHugh could see and touch the replica, which was a copy of the shroud. It bears the face of a man some believe to be Jesus.

“It’s just amazing,” McHugh, who lives in Andreas, said. “It’s like breathtaking to me.”

“It’s wonderful that they have it here in this little borough of Jim Thorpe, in this beautiful little church.”

Following the display, Bill Wingard, founder of Shroud Talks, gave a presentation on his research into the cloth’s history. He came out of retirement five years ago to put on free public speaking events on the shroud.

The shroud’s namesake comes from its home in Turin, Italy, where it has resided in the Cathedral of St. John since 1578. It was originally discovered in 1354.

Debate on the shroud’s legitimacy has raged for years. According to History.com, just last year, forensic anthropologist Matteo Borrini and chemist Luigi Garlaschelli published findings in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, where they claim bloodstains on the shroud are artificial.

The church hasn’t claimed the cloth as a religious relic, and the Vatican usually refers to it as an “icon.”

But on Thursday night, Wingard gave his own analysis of the shroud, telling the crowd that it was “a help” from Jesus to strengthen people’s faith.

“That’s why I do these talks — not that you believe the shroud is a real thing, but that you see it as evidence for God’s enormous, enormous love for each one of us,” Wingard said.

The church ended its Maundy Thursday — a Christian holy day commemorating the Last Supper — with an open communion and a community dinner, featuring a question and answer with Wingard.

The Rev. F. Peter Muhr, lead pastor at St. John’s Lutheran in Jim Thorpe, said for St. John’s, which is located in the “Heights” of the borough, the shroud “is the culmination on our Lenten emphasis on the passion of Jesus.”

He said it shows how “Jesus suffered on behalf of the world. It makes, or helps make, our faith in God more vivid,” Muhr said.

“As we talk about the death and resurrection (of Jesus), sometimes we just say it,” Bill Thompson, adjunct pastor, added. “It made it — the death — more real.”