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As the crusade tents were being folded, Graham himself flew off the Mayo Clinic to get the okay to accept the invitation to hold a crusade in London. Graham has been weakened by prostate cancer, fluid on the brain, failing hearing, and a broken hip and pelvis. Doctors put in a shunt to drain the fluid in his brain. It has significantly lessened the evangelist's shaking movements that were attributed to Parkinson's. Consequently, he has been more energetic in recent months. And the crusade energized him more. Before he left the stage, he told the New York City audience that he might even come back to the city. "I never say never," Graham confided. Graham said that he was inspired by the example of how the late Pope John Paul II faced death by continuing ministry.

And now, Murray, the disillusioned Catholic New Yorker, says, "Look at the Holy Spirit moving! People are rising. Me too!"

Tony Carnes is senior writer for Christianity Today.

Copyright © 2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has much more information about the crusade, including a photo gallery and updates.

For newspaper reports on the Graham crusade, see yesterday's Weblog.

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June (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49