The Passions Project - Ikonography Today

The practice of ikonography is not a dead discipline, but one that is currently still happening all over the world, and not only within the Church where it originated. I have had the pleasure to come into contact with Marcel van Baaren, a Dutch ikonographer, a man of many talents, who lives in Utrecht province, the Netherlands. Working with his colleague, Deacon Cornelis Visser of Nicolai Church in Utrecht, a wonderful project of ikonography is in progress.
If I wanted to give visitors to this blog and entrée into the world of ikons, it would be to direct them to the The Passions Project website. There they can see how it is that ikons come into being, at the hands of followers of Jesus, called to this ancient ministry of the Word.

Ancient, because it has been practiced for nearly 2000 years, starting in the first generation of Christians who painted in the Hellenistic style, using the encaustic method; ministry of the Word, because since the beginning it was practiced to faithfully render the truths of scripture into visual form for the illiterate.

Today, though society is literate, modern technology has produced a new kind of icon that attracts man's attention away from God, instead of toward Him. It is men like Marcel and Cornelis who continue, nonetheless, to follow their hearts in the pursuit of truth, and so true ikonography lives on, even in the Western world.

Two Orthodox sayings come to mind.
Beauty will save the world (Dostoyevsky), and…
If you have a heart, you can be saved (Abba Pambo).

If you missed the link to the Passions Project website above, click here.

Jesus Christ - Pantokrator

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GREEK ORIGINAL
Ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ Α καὶ τὸ Ω, λέγει Κύριος ὁ Θεός, ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος, ὁ παντοκράτωρ.

HEBREW
אני האלף ואני התו ראש וסוף נאם יהוה אלהים ההוה והיה ויבוא אלהי צבאות׃

ARAMAIC (PESHITTA)
ܐܢܐ ܐܠܦ ܘܬܘ ܐܡܪ ܡܪܝܐ ܐܠܗܐ ܗܘ ܕܐܝܬܘܗܝ ܘܐܝܬܘܗܝ ܗܘܐ ܘܐܬܐ ܗܘ ܕܐܚܝܕ ܟܠ ܀

ARABIC
انا هو الالف والياء البداية والنهاية يقول الرب الكائن والذي كان والذي يأتي القادر على كل شيء

ENGLISH (KJV)
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

JAPANESE
今も昔も存在し、やがて来られる全能の主なる神が、こう言われます。 「わたしは、あらゆることの初めであり、終わりである。

KOREAN
주 하나님이 가라사대 나는 알파와 오메가라 이제도 있고 전에도 있었고 장차 올 자요 전능한 자라 하시더라

BAHASA INDONESIA
Akulah yang pertama dan yang terakhir, kata Tuhan Allah, yang ada, yang sudah ada, dan yang ada seterusnya, Yang Mahakuasa.

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Christ - Mandýlion - Not Made With Hands

Orthodox Christians mark August 16 as the Feast of the Icon “Not Made With Hands,” the miraculous face of Christ first left on a cloth sent to King Abgar of Edessa.
The stories of the icon are swathed in the mists of history—but the image (or representations of it on icons) remain among the most popular of Orthodox images. It is frequently the icon that graces the entrance of a Church. Continue reading about this ikon by clicking HERE.

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Jesus Christ - Portrait

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Jesus Christ - Enthroned - Open Gospel

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Jesus Christ - Closed Gospel

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