These are the ways our parish seeks to manifest that divine revelation that calls us to God.
Beauty
Our Temple/Building Project
From before the time of Christ, the people of God have joyfully repeated the refrain, “O Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house, and the place where your glory dwells” (Ps 25/26:8). While worship can and ought to be conducted in all places on the earth (John 4:20-24), Christians have always set aside certain spaces as sacred settings to come together with one another and the Lord. As with the tabernacle and temple of the Old Testament, these spaces reflect the ornate blueprint of the heavenly sanctuary revealed by God to Moses (Exodus 25-27, 1 Chronicles 28:11-13, Hebrews 9) and are meant to help us direct our full attention to God, transcending the physical world to the heavenly.
In 2012, we enlisted renowned Orthodox Christian designer Andrew Gould to design a temple and church complex that would reflect this ancient approach to sacred spaces in our Up Country setting. The result is a traditional Byzantine structure filled with hand painted iconography but made of native yellow pine and accented by laser-cut steel chandeliers. The rest of Andrew’s design is slowly coming into shape, especially with the recent completion of the fellowship hall and porch which dwell alongside our temple.
Iconography
“No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known” (John 1:18).
When God became man in the person of Jesus Christ, everything changed. Creation was sanctified. The sights we could see, the objects we could touch, and the materials we could taste were blessed by the presence of God. For this reason, the early Christians quickly and beautifully began to adorn their sacred spaces not only with the images of the angels and creation found in the tabernacle and temple of the Old Testament, but also of Christ Himself, Who is the living image of God.
After the completion of our temple structure, we invited world-renowned iconographer Seraphim O’Keefe to make our parish his family’s home as he began his exciting effort to fill it with traditional Orthodox Christian iconographic frescoes. These frescoes depict the person of Jesus Christ, His salvific works, and the holy ones who have attained to His image and likeness, who we call “saints”.
Twice a year, we host an evening highlighting Seraphim and his icons as well as our parish’s choir. The event is called “In Color & Sound” and is open to the public.
Hymnography
The center of the life of the Orthodox Church is our worship, and the foundation of that worship are the psalms and songs of the Scriptures. In our effort to glorify God to our utmost potential, our services are not only filled with the visual beauty of vestments, icons, censors, and furnishings but also the only instrument created by God Himself: the human voice.
As the Prophet David wrote, “O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day” (Psalm 95/96:1-2).
Led by Romanos (Hamilton) Provonsha, faithfully leads our parish in singing praises to the Lord through beautiful and sometimes original settings to the Church’s most ancient hymns. Romanos also leads the Caedmon Ensemble which Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam interdum commodo ligula, ut dictum neque lobortis vitae. Aenean ornare orci nec nisi tincidunt, quis luctus mi rhoncus.
In addition to our annual “In Color & Sound” event highlighting both our iconography and choir, we also host an annual Christmas concert, and we invite all who are interested to attend!
Recordings of both the SJOTL choir and Caedmon Ensemble can be found here.
