A free exhibition on the Turin Shroud, the image believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus, will be held in Birmingham for week from this Saturday (Feb 21st) until next (Feb 28)

The Roman Catholic archbishop of Birmingham, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols is recommending a visit to The Cross, The Resurrection and the Shroud of Turin as “an excellent way to begin” Lent.

He said the exhibition, which he had visited in Little Aston in September helped visitors “enter more deeply into the sufferings of Our Lord.”

The Archbishop added: “I am delighted that this remarkable exhibition is coming to St Chad’s Cathedral.”

It has been put together by Pam Moon, lay minister at St Peter’s Anglican Church, Little Aston in the Diocese of Lichfield, where her husband, the Rev Phil Moon is vicar.

For the past six years Mrs Moon has been giving talks about the Shroud of Turin illustrated with video clips. She said: "I have been fascinated by the Turin Shroud since I was a teenager. When I received a gift of money for my 50th birthday from my mother I decided to use it to buy a full-length replica printed on cotton and two photographic negatives to add interest to my talks."

She explained: "The replica image was created by an American photographer, Barrie Schwortz, who was the official photographer at the STURP (Shroud of Turin Research Project) examination of the Shroud in 1978. The full-length replica is currently one of only six in the world.

"I was deeply moved when I first saw the full-length images. It is possible to get an idea of the Shroud from television pictures, books, magazines and newspapers articles, but seeing it in its entirety is profoundly challenging."

The exhibition also features a modern re-casting of the Stations of the Cross called "Jesus on the Cross Road" by artist Paul Hill, from Castle Vale in Birmingham, with meditations by Revd John Austen, a vicar in the Anglican Diocese of Birmingham.

Mrs Moon has produced a special booklet : The Cross the Resurrection and the Shroud of Turin to accompany the exhibition, price £3.99 (all proceeds to charity).

This correspondent edited a book of essays Face to Face with the Turin Shroud, published in October 1978 to coincide with the public exposition of the Shroud in Turin Cathedral, to mark the 400th anniversary of its arrival in the city in 1578.

The editor's preface, written on the Feast of the Transfiguration, 6 August 1978, concluded: "The conglomeration and wealth of historical, scientific, medical and biblical evidence presented in this book all points to the authenticity of the Turin Shroud. However, despite the fact that the figure on the cloth has been scourged, executed and pierced in the manner described of Jesus of Nazareth in the four Gospels, there will never be any absolute proof that this is the Shroud in which his dead body was put when he was taken down from the Cross and laid in the tomb.

"The ultimate challenge of the Shroud is to one’s personal convictions in the light of the many and varied sources of evidence. These six compellingly cogent essays are offered as a stimulus to further study. But what is clear from any examination of the facts is that if this Shroud bears the marks of authenticity that these distinguished writers claim, then the marks of nail, spear, and crown of thorns, speak of a far greater cost of suffering in God’s identification in Christ with a suffering world, for its rescue and redemption, than any words can tell."

The Cross, the Resurrection and the Shroud of Turin is open daily (7 am - 5 pm) at St Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham