NEWS FEATURE: Icons: Windows of the Soul Onto Heaven

c. 2003 Religion News Service PARMA, Ohio _ Jesus, Mary and John are everywhere. Walk inside Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in Parma, and dramatic depictions of the Gospel story follow you through the temple. Turn one way, and the severed head of John the Baptist cries out. Turn another, and one sees a portrayal of […]

c. 2003 Religion News Service

PARMA, Ohio _ Jesus, Mary and John are everywhere.

Walk inside Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in Parma, and dramatic depictions of the Gospel story follow you through the temple.


Turn one way, and the severed head of John the Baptist cries out. Turn another, and one sees a portrayal of a resurrected Christ drawing Adam and Eve from the pits of hell.

The intense faces of the adult Jesus, and Mary and her infant son, a haunting combination of benevolence, faith, love and judgment, gaze back at worshippers from large screens.

Look overhead or along the back wall, and one can see painted images of saints covering almost every part of the spacious new church.

To the uninitiated or even art lovers used to the modern museum’s spacing of pieces for maximum appreciation, the assault on the senses can be overwhelming. In many Protestant churches, the covering of the sanctuary with such images is seen by some as idol worship.

But for those who speak the language, who understand icons as windows of the soul unto heaven, the effect is a transformation from a secular to a spiritual world. Jesus, Mary, John and others fill the sanctuary with their presence, a presence that speaks to those who listen.

The Rev. Vladimir Berzonsky, pastor of Holy Trinity, finds a source of support for his calling in the icon of Christ entering Jerusalem. The portrait of Jesus looking back at his apostles when you might expect him to be looking forward to the city contains a personal message urging the priest forward. He said Jesus seems to be asking, “Are you with me?”

The world outside can bombard the faithful with profane images glorifying temporal passions. Here in the Orthodox Church, icons are reminders of another world filled with spiritual peace.

“They are our friends. A wall full of icons is like a scrapbook full of photos of people we love, people who love us,” author Frederica Mathewes-Green writes in her new book, “The Open Door: Entering the Sanctuary of Icons and Prayer.”


Mathewes-Green and others say there is new interest in religious images such as icons and a greater understanding that pictures can tell religious stories as well as words.

The Rev. Joseph Hilinski, interfaith director of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, said he has noticed not only a decrease in the polemics against religious images, but also an increase in Protestant churches adopting Nativity scenes and creches.

And the increasing religious diversity of the nation is exposing more people to the idea of how art can enhance spiritual reflection in homes and sanctuaries.

Along the walls of the Shiva Vishnu Temple in Parma are stone sculptures of various Hindu deities. These are not idols, but manifestations that help people understand the one absolute God, said Ramaswamy Sharma, temple manager.

“God is everywhere. He is not only in the statue, but he is visible there,” Sharma said. “They’re looking at this form as a symbol … They worship the spirit behind the symbol.”

In Buddhist temples, the statue of Buddha does not represent God. But it is a visible form that helps human beings move from the finite world to contemplate the infinite sense of life and light, said the Rev. Koshin Ogui, supervising minister of the Cleveland Buddhist Temple.


“We human beings, in limited consciousness, need some kind of form to get through and beyond the form,” he said. “Any religion is like a finger pointing to the beauty of the moon.”

This is not the American religious experience the Puritans brought over with them.

Look inside many Protestant churches even today, and it would not be uncommon for the front of the sanctuary to be devoid of pictures of Jesus. In some of the fastest growing evangelical movements, such as the Vineyard Christian Fellowships and Calvary Chapels, there is a conscious decision to have spare architecture for fear traditional religious symbols would turn off some potential converts.

But there are many Christian groups that embrace such images.

The Rev. Richard McBrien, a theologian and author at the University of Notre Dame, said there has been a decline in some popular devotions such as stations of the cross, but visual images from stained glass to modern prayer cards retain great meaning for Catholics.

“Catholicism is a sacramental tradition, which means it has a high regard for what is visible, tangible, sensual, artistic,” McBrien said.

Perhaps nowhere is religious imagery a more dominant part of church architecture than in the Eastern Orthodox Church, where icons are omnipresent.

“It provides a feeling of spirituality,” said the Rev. Anthony Demetri of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Cleveland. “The images depicted through the icons help us to see beyond this world.”


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The theology behind icons goes back to the incarnation, the belief God took human form and is revealed in creation.

“An icon of Christ can represent his complete human-divine unity, though it depicts his visible earthly form. It can do this using humble wood and paint, because even those ordinary things belong to him,” Green said.

The meaning is especially evident in Orthodox and Catholic traditions, which believe matter can hold something sacred, said the Rev. Michael Butler of St. Innocent Orthodox Church in Olmsted Falls, Ohio. For example, both traditions believe the Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ.

“An icon makes the subject present,” Butler said. “When there is an icon of Christ, Christ is present in and through that icon.”

The priest said there are days when he is so aware of his own sinfulness when he enters the church, “I come in, and I just can’t look at Christ. I can’t look him in the eyes.”

Most Orthodox Christians also have icons in their homes, Butler said.

Beth Popovich, 37, has icons everywhere, from the dining room where her family prays before they eat to the windowsill in the kitchen so she can have a source of spiritual strength even while doing the dishes.


“It’s a struggle every day to be a good Christian,” said the mother of four from St. Matthew the Evangelist Antiochian Orthodox Church in North Royalton. “Every day, there’s a lot of temptation and struggle.”

Eleni Demetri, 39, wife of the pastor of Annunciation Church, said she has an icon in every room of her house. Mary is a particular inspiration to her as a clergyman’s wife.

“I wish I could be as patient as she was,” Demetri said.

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In the church, each icon can have special meaning to worshippers.

Kelly Wade, 41, the mother of five children ages 14 to 2, turns to an icon of Mary at St. Matthew the Evangelist for help in raising her family.

“It shows a lot of patience, and compassion and love,” she said.

Her husband, Matthew, finds inspiration in the icon of the beheading of John the Baptist.

“We have to give up our life to walk with Christ,” he said. “To be a good father, to be a husband as well, you have to give up your life.”

As he walked through Holy Trinity, Berzonsky looked at an icon of Mary and the infant Jesus and said, “If you have a heart between your ribs, you can feel this.”


Those feelings and the connections they evoke are why Orthodox consider icons important windows into heaven.

“The whole idea of the church is to lift us up beyond what we already know,” Berzonsky said.

DEA END BRIGGS

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