While perusing the inventory of an antiquities dealer several years ago, a small bronze cross caught Anson Williams’ eye. Williams, a veteran director of film and television, well-known as “Potsie” and the star of the iconic television series “Happy Days,” describes himself as being “very spiritual,” and having a life-long attraction to sacred art.
“The simple beauty of this ancient cross spoke to me,” says Williams, who acquired the piece after seeing photographs and a description identifying it as a very unique pectoral cross of the Byzantine Empire dating to the early 6th Century. Admiration of the aesthetic was soon enhanced by a more spiritual experience, Williams claims. “My appreciation of the cross as a piece of art was soon overcome by a very real sense of something powerful when I held it in my hand.” Williams felt compelled to share the cross with others. “Many people who held and touched the cross described to me that they also experienced something very powerful, from relieving physical pain to feeling an indescribable, transcendent peacefulness come over them. Someone began calling it the ‘Healing Cross.’ The name stuck, because that’s exactly what it is,” Williams explains. “I can’t explain its powerful effect, but it’s there. I’ve personally witnessed it.” A native of Burbank, California who grew up Jewish, Williams says he couldn’t ignore what others had experienced through the Healing Cross, and he began looking for a religious community that could serve as a suitable home for the sacred object.
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