My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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ORTHODOX CHURCH ARCHITECTURE
Historically the Orthodox Church has a definite style Church architecture developed by the attempt to reveal the fundamental experience of Orthodox Christianity: that God is with us. The fact that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the Emmanuel (which translated means 'God with us') has come, determines the form of the Orthodox church building. God is with man in Christ through God the Holy Spirit. The dwelling place of God is with man. "We are the temple of the living God..." (2 Corinthians 6:16), and it is exactly this belief and experience that Orthodox Church architecture wishes to convey. It is also of interest that churches are oriented so that the holy Altar faces the East and sunrise, symbolizing Christ, the Light.
Orthodox Christian architecture reveals that Almighty God is with all His people, dwelling in them and living in them through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. It does so by using the dome or the vaulted ceiling to crown the Christian church building, the House of the Church which is the people of God. Unlike the pointed arches which point to God far up in the heavens, the dome or the spacious, all-embracing ceiling gives the impression that in the Kingdom of God, and in the Church, Christ "unites all things in Himself, things in heaven and things on earth," (Ephesians 1:10) and that in Him we are all "filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:19).
The interior of the Orthodox church building is particularly styled to give the experience of the unity of all things in God. It is not constructed to reproduce the Upper Room of the Mystical Supper, or to be simply a meeting hall for people whose life exists solely within the bounds of this earth. The church building is patterned after the image of God's Kingdom in the Book of Revelation. Before us is the altar table on which Christ is enthroned, both as the Logos/Word of God in the Gospels and as the Lamb of God in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Around the Table are the Angels and Saints, the servants of the Logos and the Lamb (Amnos) who glorify Him - and through Him, God the Father - in perpetual worship inspired by God the Holy Spirit. The faithful Christians on earth who already belong to that holy assembly enter into the Eternal Worship of God's Kingdom in the Church. Thus, in Orthodox Christian practice, the Narthex (Vetibule) symbolizes this world. The nave is the place of the Church understood as the assembly and people of God. The Altar area, called the sanctuary or the Holy of Holies, stands for the Kingdom of God.
In the Holy Orthodox Christian Church, the holy icons bear witness to the reality of God's presence with us in the mystery of faith. The holy icons are not just human pictures or visual aids to contemplation and prayer. They are the witnesses of the presence of the Kingdom of God to us, and also our own presence in the Kingdom of God in the Church.
"As the word of the Holy Scripture is an image, so the image is also a word."What the word transmits through the ear, that painting silently shows through the image," says Saint Basil the Great, and "by these two means, mutually accompany one another... e receive knowledge of one and the same thing." In other words, the holy icon contains and professes the same truth as the Gospels and therefore, like the Gospel, is based on exact concrete data, and in no way on invention, for otherwise it could not explain the Gospels nor correspond to them.
Thus the holy icon is placed on the same level with the Holy Scripture and with the Cross, as one of the forms of revelation and knowledge of God, in which Divine and human will and action become blended. Apart from us direct meaning, each alike is a reflection of the higher world; each alien is a symbol of the Spirit contained in them. Consequently, the meaning of both of the word and of the image, their role and significance are the same. The image, like the Divine service, transmits the teaching of the Church and expresses the grace-given life of the Sacred Tradition in the Church. Through the Divine service and through the icon, revelation becomes for believers their property and precept for life. For this reason, Church sacred art acquired from the very beginning a form in keeping with what it expresses....
"...Architecture, painting, music, poetry cease to be forms of art, each following its own way, independently of the others, in search of appropriate effects, and become parts of a single liturgic whole which by no means diminishes their significance, but implies in each case renunciation of an individual role, of self-assertion..."
"Since in its essence the holy icon, like the word, is a liturgic art, it never served religion but, like the word, has always been and is an integral part of religion, one of the instruments for the knowledge of God, one of the means of communion with Him. This explains the importance which the Church attributes to the image--an importance such that of all victories over a multitude of various heresies, it was only the victory of iconoclasm and the reestablishment of the veneration of holy icons that was proclaimed as the Triumph of Orthodoxy, celebrated on the First Sunday of Great and Holy Lent."
The iconostasis (icon screen) in the Orthodox Church exists to show our unity with Jesus Christ, His Most Holy Mother, the Theotokos, and all the Angels and Saints. "The iconostasis represents one of the most important architectural features of Orthodox churches. It is an unbroken screen, composed of holy icons, separating the Sanctuary, where the Mysterion (Sacrament) of the Divine Eucharist is celebrated, from the central part, the nave, where the congregation stands. It consists of several rows of holy icons place on horizontal wooden transoms, either close to one another, as, for instance, in the 15th Century iconostasis, or separated from one another by half-columns, the result is a great number of icons enclosed in separate, and often carved, gilt or painted frames...
"...The Sanctuary Screen also has a symbolic meaning. The Holy Fathers liken it to the boundary between two worlds: the Divine and the human, the permanent and the transitory (as for instance Saint Gregory the Theologian in the Ode to the Bishops). Saint Simeon of Thessaloniki gives the following explanation: "The columns on the iconostasis represent The firmament, dividing the spiritual from the sensory. Therefore the κοσμίτης (transom or horizontal beam) denotes the union through love between the heavenly and the earthly. This is why above the kosmit, in the center between the holy icons, there are images of the Savior and the Mother of God, which means they abide both in heaven and among men."
The Book of the Gospels is perpetually enthroned on the Altar Table. It is on the Altar Table that we offer the "bloodless sacrifice" of Christ to the Father. And from the holy Altar Table, we receive the Bread of Life, the Precious Body and Sacred Blood of the Lord's Mystical Supper. The Table is the "table of God's Kingdom" (Luke 28:30).
In Orthodox Holy Tradition the holy Altar Table is often carved in wood or stone. It is usually vested with material to show its Divine and heavenly character. On the holy Altar Table one always finds the antimension. This is the cloth depicting Christ in the Tomb which contains the signature of the local presiding bishop and is the permission for the local community to gather as the Church.
The holy Altar Table also contains holy relics of three saints which show that the church is built on the sacred blood of the holy Martyrs and the lives of God's holy people. This tradition comes from the early Church practice of gatherings and celebrating the Divine Eucharist on the graves of those who have lived and died for the Christian faith.
Also found on the holy Altar Table is a tabernacle (artophorion), in the shape of a church building, which is a repository for the gifts of Holy Communion that are reserved for the sick and the dying. There is also a small hand cross used for blessing and for veneration by the faithful. The sign of the Cross is used throughout church building: on the holy vessels, stands, tables, and vestments.
The Cross is the central symbol for Christians, not only as the instrument of the world's salvation by the Crucified Christ, but also as the constant witness to the fact that men cannot be Christians unless they live with the cross as the very content of their lives in this world. "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me" (Mark 8:34).
For these reasons, Orthodox Christians place upon themselves the sign of the cross. The Orthodox Christians place their first two fingers and thumb together to form a sign of the Triune God and cross themselves from the head to the breast and from shoulder to shoulder, right to left. This unique and all-embracing symbol shows that the Cross is the inspiration, power, and indeed the very content of our lives as Christians; and that man's mind, heart, and strength must be given to the love of God and man. (Source: Father Peter J. Orfanakos)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostom
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry)
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George