Orthodox Homiletics: A New Website

When we think of the traditional Orthodox liturgical arts, we most often think about the tactile and the sensory; gilded icons glowing with candlelight cast from iron chandeliers, the smell of incense wafting as the priest walks censing the believers as the choir sings praises to the Theotokos. One thing that doesn’t necessarily come to…

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St-John Chrysostom on Liturgical Art

As a liturgical artist, as someone who makes expensive objects to furnish the Church or to be worn by its clergy, there is a homily of St-John Chrysostom I like to keep in the back of my mind.  It is a homily on the Gospel of St-Mathew in which he warns us:   “Do you want…

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Divine Temple 2012

I would like to draw the reader’s attention to this wonderful publication from Russia. Kolomenskaya Versta Ltd. produces albums, manuals, catalogs and postcards featuring and publicizing contemporary iconography and liturgical art. The fourth edition of their catalog of iconographers, “Divine Temple”  is now available. It is printed in English and Russian. From the publisher: We…

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Towards Indigenous and Mature Liturgical Arts

We often hear it said that traditional Orthodox liturgical arts are reviving. But how far advanced is this revival, how mature is it, and what in fact are we reviving? In this article I would like to stimulate discussion by briefly considering three related subjects: indigenous iconography, maturity, and features of a healthy climate that…

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Embroidery for the Modern Church

In 1995, a small unused room in the Icon Painting School at the Moscow Orthodox Theological Academy was converted into a studio for a single student interested in the lost art of church embroidery. This became the Pictorial Embroidery Department of the Icon Painting School housed in a larger facility within the famous Trinity-St. Sergius…

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The Creation of a Christian Culture

This is post 1 of 2 in the series “The Creation of a Christian Culture” Nicholas Kotar shows us how liturgical art and traditional forms can inspire the creation of para-liturgical and secular works of art. The Creation of a Christian Culture The Creation of a Christian Culture, Part 2 “Christianity has a great calling,…

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The Holy Ascension Choros

  The Holy Ascension choros, which was completed Pascha 2012, has been a project eight years in the making. In 2004, my wife and I were on our way to Charleston, SC for my first job out of architecture school – to design Holy Ascension Orthodox church. On our way, we stopped in New York…

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