Design for an Orthodox Church in Amish Country

I was recently asked to design a new chapel for Saint Gregory Palamas Orthodox Monastery in Perrysville, Ohio. It is an especially pleasing project for me because the site is located in the heart of the most idyllic Amish farm country – rolling hills, huge simple barns, elegant Victorian farmhouses, quiet roads with horse-drawn buggies.…

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PASCHAL PILGRIMAGE TO RUSSIA: FROM DIVEEVO TO VALAAM

  Editor’s note: I had the great privilege of traveling to Russia in 2006 with Fr. Ilya Gotlinsky of Orthodox Tours. It was a superb experience, in every respect. Fr. Ilya leads tours regularly, but I would like to call attention to a special upcoming tour – a pilgrimage tour that will visit Russia’s most…

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The Robot, the Mutant and The Artist

[1]One of the weaknesses in our vision of the world is that we tend to look at what surrounds us from one side of an opposition.  This is inevitable as humanity’s existence unfolds like a wheel, waxing and waning, pulled by opposite forces from extreme to extreme.   These extremes feed each other, call each other…

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Fr. Philippe Péneaud: Romanesque Iconography Today

Fr. Philippe Péneaud is a priest for the Antiochian Orthodox Church and a prolific woodcarver living in the South of France. Having studied in the great tradition of European woodcarving with Raymond Labeyrie, he converted to Orthodoxy in the 1980s under the influence of Leonid Ouspensky’s “Theology of The Icon” as well as through the works of others…

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The Rich Classicism of Fr. Ilie Bobaianu

Last year we posted an article about young Romanian iconographers creating traditional icons looking partially to modern art for elements to include in their work.   With the spiritual renewal of Romania, there are also some wonderful iconographers exploring the rich strain of classicism in Byzantine icons. Fr. Ilie Bobaianu (Dantes) is a monk and iconographer who’s work shines particularly…

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Two New Choros Chandeliers

I have had the opportunity recently to make and install two choros chandeliers, a type of fixture that is of particular interest to me as a designer. I have written previously about similar chandeliers I have installed in churches in Charleston, South Carolina, and Waldorf, Maryland, and I refer readers to those articles for information…

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