 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Spiritual insight
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer
ST. PETERSBURG -- For most Christians, it's still Easter. The season officially won't end until June 8, with Pentecost, which commemorates the arrival of the Holy Spirit. For those of the Orthodox faith, Easter won't arrive until midnight Saturday and will end on June 15. All this is especially fortuitous for the current exhibit of Spanish Colonial and Russian Orthodox religious artifacts at the Museum of Fine Arts on St. Petersburg's waterfront. The exhibit, Icons/Santos: Images of Devotion, will end June 15. David Connelly, a spokesman for the museum, said the exhibit was planned as part of the celebration honoring the birthdays of St. Petersburg, Russia, and St. Petersburg, Fla. It just happened to fall during the Easter season. A highlight of the show is the iconostasis or icon screen, a distinguishing element in Orthodox churches. It is an elaborate structure with a main center door and two smaller doors, one on the right and the other on the left. The iconostasis separates the altar area, where the clergy celebrates the Eucharist, from the nave, where the congregation gathers. The iconostasis on display at the Museum of Fine Arts has been borrowed from St. Mark Orthodox Church in Bradenton, whose small congregation is made up of American-born members as well as people of Greek, Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Romanian and Arab ancestry from throughout the Tampa Bay area. The Rev. John Chudik, 33, pastor of St. Mark's, hopes the exhibit will give visitors an insight into the beliefs of Orthodox Christians as well as encourage them to think about their own spirituality. "We hope that it causes people to look inwardly at their own faith, their own commitment to God and, hopefully, ask themselves the really significant question of what motivates them, who do they model their lives after?," he said. He described the iconostasis as "probably one of the most distinguishing features in an Orthodox church." "If you walk into an Orthodox church, that would be something that you would expect to see," he said. St. Mark's, which is preparing to build a new church, commissioned the iconostasis for its new sanctuary ahead of time so that it could be used at a national church meeting of the Orthodox Church in America that was in Orlando last summer. The structure can be part of the museum exhibit because it has not yet been consecrated. It will be one of the last furnishings to go into the new St. Mark's church, which will combine Slavic and Byzantine styles. Construction is expected to begin in September and be complete nine or 10 months later. After the exhibit closes and until the new church is ready, the iconostasis will be stored in a parishioner's home. The screen will be blessed by Archbishop Dmitri, head of the diocese of the Orthodox Church in America that covers Dallas and the South. Chudik also hopes that the primate of the Orthodox Church in America, Metropolitan Herman, will attend the ceremony. The Orthodox Church in America originally was a branch of the Russian Orthodox Church but was granted self-governing status in 1970, before the breakup of the Soviet Union. Its headquarters are in New York and its national cathedral, St. Nicholas, is in Washington, D.C. St. Mark's iconostasis is made of mahogany, intricately carved by Kostas Pylarinos, who learned his craft while growing up as an orphan in Greece. The icons on the screen were created, or to use the proper term, "written," by Dmitry Shkolnik, a Russian now living in California. The peacock, a recurring theme carved into the screen, represents the Old Testament symbol for royalty. Carvings of grapes and vines point to Christ and to the Eucharist or Holy Communion. Jesus says, in John 15:5, "I am the vine." Chudik said his church got "an incredible deal" on the iconostasis because of the expected exposure at last year's national church conference. The icons on the screen cost $25,000. The carved mahogany cost $66,000. "In real life terms, it would run for that whole thing, $225,000 to $250,000," the priest said. The exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, 255 Beach Drive NE, also features additional icons from several sources and other religious items. During a recent talk during the museum's Art of the Spirit program, Chudik explained what icons -- usually two-dimensional images of Christ, the saints, angels and other biblical figures -- are and aren't. "Icons are not worshiped. The only thing that is worshiped in our tradition is God. . . . Icons are not idols. Icons are not magical. They are not superstitious items," he said emphatically. "They are objects of education, of prayer," he said later. "Only God is worshiped in the Trinity. We are praying with icons and through icons. Our prayers are addressed to God the father, or God the son or the Holy Spirit and it's through the intercessions, through the prayers of the saints depicted on an icon, we ask for their spiritual help. So we don't worship or somehow exalt a piece of wood or metal. We honor or venerate the saint or event pictured on it." The priest, who had planned to become an orthopedic surgeon until he rediscovered his childhood faith while studying in Paris, works full time as a priest and part time as a nurse for Sarasota Memorial Hospital in its home health care agency. Chudik said he hopes the exhibit will help people understand his beloved Orthodox faith. "I think one of the things that I would like to see is just a real sense of curiousity," he said. "I think the fact that this type of work has been done for many, many centuries, it shows that there is a strong historical connection to our faith."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times South Pinellas desks | ||||||||||||||||||||||
