Imagine This: February 2014 posts

February 26, 2014

St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church

Our church Arts Ministry Team sponsored a field trip to Houston to visit an Orthodox Church and have lunch at a Mediterrainean grill.

St. George Antioachian Orthodox Church, West University, Houston TX (Website Photo)

The Nave or main worship area with its Iconostasis and Holy Doors in front of the dome of the icon of the Mother of God which is above the sanctuary area behind the Iconostasis.

Father Symeon Kees, holding an incense censor, has opened the Holy Doors of the Iconostasis to reveal the Sanctuary behind where you will see the altar in front of the icon of Jesus Christ, The King of Kings or Great High Priest.

Father Symeon sang a chant for us from the responses to liturgical services.

Psalteria for singing and chanting.

One of my favorite icons was of St. Rapheal because it had a reliquary built in. An icon reliquary is a recessed hole filled with a relic from the saint like a little piece of garment or bone. Here is the whole St. Raphael piece:

(Photo from web site.) Sorry about the glare. Near the center bottom is the reliquary. Here is a close up of it:

The dark piece in the middle is a little piece of St. Raphael's bone.

This is another icon with a reliquary:

The reliquary is under the second figure, and contains a little piece of fabric from St. Herman's garment.

This is a close up of the Holy Doors on the iconostasis (photo by Kaye Smith):

Icons of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John on the Holy Doors.

Did you know that the peacock was an early religious symbol? Because of a belief that the peacock’s flesh did not decay after death, the peacock became a symbol of Christ, and, as such, early Christian paintings and mosaics use peacock imagery. Here is a detail of the peacocks on the Holy Doors:

Here is the rear wall of the Nave. Through the doors is the Narthex. (web site photo)

Icons like this one were painted on the side walls of the Nave:

Icon of St. Barbara.

These are icons of Christ and the Apostles (includes Paul in the circle with Peter) painted on the wall of the Narthex:

Other icons in the narthex:

The crucifixion

The Ressurection

The Narthex prayer corner:

Icon station for children in the Narthex:

There were many icons in the church - too many to photograph all. I'd love to go back to have time to really look at all of them.

Kaye got a couple of pictures of us in the Narthex as Father Symeon talked to us about the Orthodox Church practices.