This shows the chancel. (I'm not sure what they call it in the Eastern Church, but it's what the deacon said would compare to the Holy of Holies in the Old Testament temple.) Laymen may not go behind the screen, but the deacon allowed Paul to take a picture through the screen. Notice the Christ in the ciborium (the icon on the wall behind the altar).
A picture from the back of the nave.
The dome over the center of the nave.
The back corner of the nave. On the left of the picture, you can see the icon of Jesus calming the storm. Just around the corner, you can kinda see the icon of Ezekiel and the dry bones. Toward the right of the picture, you can see the mosaics on the back wall of the nave and in the balcony.
This shows the screen separating the nave from the chancel. The doors are open during some parts of the Liturgy, but closed when something especially heavenly is going on at the altar (such as the consecration of the elements). Notice the many saints depicted: on the front of the screen, on the arch of the ceiling, the Blessed Virgin Mary near the ceiling at the front of the church, on the doors of the screen, above the screen, etc. The icon partially visible on the right, above the screen, is of the crucifixion. The icon partially visible above that is of the institution of the Lord's Supper. The chancel area was where they started doing the mosaics fifty years ago, and it shows the most important stories. The rest of the mosaics were done over the course of the next several decades, being finished only recently.
The mosaics don't show up as beautifully in these pictures as they do in real life. The deacon explained how the pieces of tile are different sizes, without smooth edges, and the surfaces cannot be perfectly flat. If they were smooth and even tiles that fitted together perfectly (like in your kitchen or bathroom) the light would bounce off too well, and we couldn't see the picture. The intricacies of the icons and their vivid colors don't come across well in the photos.
Very cool!
ReplyDeleteI love going to churches and just...sitting, taking it all in. So awesome. :)
Where is this and why were you there?
ReplyDeleteIt's gorgeous.
The church is St Sava's Serbian Orthodox. It's in Milwaukee. We went on a fieldtrip there last Friday, and I blogged a bit about it that day, regretting that I didn't have pictures to go with what I wrote. But Paul took pictures, so yesterday Gary helped me post them to my blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks for showing the pictures!!!I do so admire all the artistry in the Eastern churches.
ReplyDeleteIn high school I had to do an architectural review of a local building and I selected a St. Sava's serbian Eastern Orthodox cathederal near my home too. That is how I came to know the screen is called an iconostasis.
Our local home school group has taken some field trips to see other churches too, they are my favorites.
Thanks, Marie. I thought there was a proper word I was unaware of (or couldn't remember). I think the deacon was doing a lot of "translating" for us. There were other words he used for our benefit where he could've used the real term. He did use "nave" however, and carefully explained the term and where it came from. That amused Maggie a bit because she's gotten that speech about 4 or 5 years in a row from her own pastor.
ReplyDeletehehehe.... so I was thinking more about this entry and this field trip I took with my World Religions class to 4 different places representing 4 different religions. It was just over three years ago, but it was the first I'd ever learned anything about Eastern Orthodoxy. How far I've come. 0:)
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I thought you might find it amusing... so check it out if you'd like. The occurrence at the Sikh temple was the best part...I still laugh thinking about it. http://justanthy.livejournal.com/243764.html