Miracle Image At Yankalilla

(Investigator 61, 1998 July)

Fr Andrew Nutter, famous for the miracle image in the Anglican church at Yankalilla, may resign from the priesthood. (Sunday Mail 1998 May 10)

Promotion of what might merely be salt damp or bubbled paint as the Madonna and child, led to dissension in the congregation.

Yankalilla traders were pleased with the tourist influx but many parishioners disapproved of their church becoming a tourist venture. They felt their priest concentrated on promoting the image and neglected them.

The image on the front wall to the right of the altar is highlighted by electric lighting focused on it. To this writer the irregular surface vaguely resembled a shrouded person holding a cloth-wrapped infant.

However, psychologist Laurie Eddie wrote:

…the apparition at Yankalilla appears to be nothing more than a common type of visual illusion, what is called a simulacrum, an abstract pattern which produces the impression to people viewing it, of some recognizable shape.

I am only able to see the most rudimentary outline. I get a much clearer image when I turn the picture upside down and then I can quite clearly see the Phantom's skull cave. (Investigator 50 pp. 44-47; 57 p. 39)

Hundreds of prayer-request cards on display list all sorts of serious complaints – including cancer, brain tumor, schizophrenia, infertility, heart disease, mental defect and singleness. Alleged healing has included inoperable cancer and brain tumor. (Investigator 56 p. 23)

At the entrance is a padlocked donation box and displays of items for sale: photos, brochures, pendants, leaflets, booklets.

(BS)

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