The following is from an email sent early this morning to the STERA mailing list by Barrie Schwortz:
The organizers of next year’s St. Louis Shroud Conference have just announced the dates for their event. This is the information I just received from Joe Marino:
An international Shroud conference titled "Shroud of Turin: The Controversial Intersection of Faith and Science" is scheduled for October 9-12, 2014. Co-sponsored by Resurrection of the Shroud Foundation and the Salt River Production Group, the conference will be held at the Drury Plaza Inn, 355 Chesterfield Center, Chesterfield, Missouri 63017,just west of St. Louis and less than 20 miles from Lambert – St. Louis International Airport.
Subject matter for the papers is open to any major aspect of sindonology, including Science, History, Art, Theology and can also include other relevant artifacts such as the Sudarium of Oviedo, Manoppello Cloth and the Tilma of Guadalupe. Abstracts should be submitted electronically to Joe Marino (JMarino240@aol.com) no later than 15 May 2014. (That date has changed from a previous announcement.) If for some reason the abstract cannot be sent electronically, please send to Joe Marino / 2408 Sovron Ct. / Dublin, Ohio 43016 / USA. Authors will be limited to a maximum of 2 (two) papers as primary or secondary author. Abstracts will be sent to selected reviewers, who will not be informed of the identity of the author. Authors will also be required to send vitaes. Authors will be notified of acceptance no later than 30 June 2014. English will be the official language of the conference. The conference will begin on Thursday evening October 9th and end at noon on Sunday October 12th. Monday, October 13th is the Columbus Day holiday.
KEY WEBSITES:
Conference Info: http://shroud.wikispaces.com/St.+Louis+Conference+2014 Registration: under construction
Hotel: https://www.druryhotels.com/propertyoverview.aspx?property=0121Resurrection of the Shroud Foundation: http://www.resurrectionoftheshroud.com/
Salt River Production Group: http://saltriverproductions.com/
I couldn’t get the hotel link to work. I was able to get the above picture and this description from another site:
The new 10-story Drury Plaza Hotel Chesterfield is approximately 22 miles west of downtown St. Louis. This suburban hotel is 19 miles from Lambert St. Louis International Airport adjacent to I-64 and the Chesterfield Westfield Mall.The 275-room hotel features free wireless internet access in all guest rooms lobby and meeting rooms one hour of free long distance per room every night an indoor/outdoor pool and whirlpool exercise room guest pantry and guest laundry facility. Everyday a free HOT! QUIKSTART breakfast is provided and includes scrambled eggs sausage biscuits and gravy made to order pancakes juices hot and cold cereals toast fresh fruit milk coffee tea pastries and other assorted baked goods. Along with the breakfast Drury’s value package includes free evening beverages and snacks offered daily.Each guest room has microwaves refrigerators iron and ironing boards hairdryers coffeemakers TVs and telephones with voice mail.
Can anyone enlighten me on these conferences? When I read papers from those held in the past they only seem to include papers from those who believe the Shroud is authentic,in fact they even seem to be used primarily as a meeting place for old friends (nothing wrong in that). So if someone sends in a paper arguing in favour of the radiocarbon dating or a haematologist sends in a paper disputing that there are bloodstains on the cloth , do they get rejected or accepted on scientific merit? It is a pity that there never seem to be actual debates -perhaps I am wrong but it seems to be largely papers read out .
I would certainly like to see a DEBATE on the alternative routes from Jerusalem that a burial cloth might have reached northern France in view of the fact that we have early relics close to Lirey that were said to have come from ‘the Lord’s tomb’ as well as all the crusader evidence of cloths being brought back to France from crusades earlier than the 1350s. These seem to have been relevant but completely neglected in favour of the Edessa route (that as a historian, I can find no merit in but could be included as one of the alternatives by someone who believes in it).
If you go to the WikiSpaces conference page and click onn the hotel link there, it works.