VISION IN SKY

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 July 1944, Page 4

VISION IN SKY

STRANGE STORY IN ENGLAND Reminiscent of last war stories of visions such as the Angels of Mons, is the strange story of a Crucifixion vision in the skies over England which has recently been the subject of considerable discussion and correspondence in the British Press. Sworn to by hundreds of people over a wide area, the report stands in marked contrast to previous cases of alleged signs and visions during this war, where details have been vague and eye- witnesses unprocurable. In a three-columns report to the Sunday Express, compiled from dozens of personal interviews and what he described as “an avalanche of letters,” the Rev. Harold Green, vicar of St. Nicholas’, Ipswich, gave a detailed description of the occurrence, together with the names and addresses of witnesses. They include policemen, gardeners, typists, housewives, railwaymen, home guardsmen and naval petty-officers. The districts where the vision was stated to have been seen include Manchester, Thames, Southend, Cambridge, Plymouth and Ramsgate. “PEOPLE HELD SPELLBOUND” “Just after seven o’clock on April 27, 1944—a clear evening—the sirens wailed an air raid,” reported Mr. Green, “and people glanced up at the’ sky, as folks do when they hear the alert. What these people saw held them spellbound. “There, against the brilliant turquoise blue of the evening sky, a perfect cross, which seemed to occupy about one-sixth of the heavens, was forming. Even as they watched, it assumed complete and perfect form, and then, quite gradually, the features of Jesus Christ took shape. It was the Crucifixion scene. There, unmistakably. were the bowed head and crossed feet of Christ on the Cross.” People who swore to seeing it, said [Mr. Green, were not the kind to be awestruck by a passing cloud of singular shape. He made an appeal for witnesses to come forward, and received a staggering response. Hundreds of letters poured in and his [’phone was ringing constantly. I “Such people as these do not ‘see things,”’ he continued. “A score of '.working men in a home guard unit do not go about looking for signs and wonders. Nor do petty-officers at naval barracks. All their accounts tallied. All agreed about the gradual appearance of Our Lord on the Cross. All agreed about the disappearance of the vision suddenly—intact until the last moment, just before the all-clear was sounded. “I am not a spiritualist,” Mr. Green concluded, “but I am a firm believer in the Bible and the value of its message for all ages. This vision was, I believe, placed in the sky by * Him as a sign and a message of hope.”