Is it a message from above? Or just a fancy lighting trick?
Maureen Hope was stunned when she drew the curtains at St George's Anglican Church in Gate Pa and saw an apparition of Jesus before her.
The reflection from a stained glass window has also surprised Tauranga parishoners.
On the trunk of
a tree in the St George Anglican Church grounds there appears a vision, an image of Jesus surrounded by blue and purple shards of light.
The illusion has been appearing for an hour or so each day from 9am but is the first sighting of its type since the church was built 12 years ago.
The image comes from the stained-glass window of the resurrection that is part of an original part of the church that has suffered two fires over the past century. It has also been victim to vandals who smashed some of the coloured glass.
But this week, church-goers have been delighted by the surreal image seeming to appear on a wide tree-trunk outside.
The trunk appears to glow with colour. The mysterious light was discovered by the vicar's warden, Maureen Hope.
"I opened the curtains and thought, `I don't believe what I'm looking at'."
Morning light is projecting the stained-window image across the church and onto glass doors. The image cannot normally be seen but at a certain angle it appears to light up on a tree outside.
Maureen Hope said the mystery was in the unusual angles. She confirmed that she had not been over-indulging in the communion wine and certainly had witnesses to the sight.
Parishoners John and Lola Webb initially wondered what all the fuss was about.
"But when I saw it I was absolutely astounded. I don't know how it does it, I really don't know," Mrs Webb said.
"It is a small miracle, there is no to do about it. Did it just come? Or were we too blind to see it?"
Another member of the congregation, Sandy Houltram, said the illusion, while explainable, was still a thrill for church goers.
The secretary of the church, Jose Mellelieu, has already made cards of the sight to sell in the parish foyer.
