The word symbol is derived from Greek words syn and balo which means to bring to realities together and place them side by side. Leonid Ouspensky, that brilliant expositor of the Orthodox language of symbolism, holds that it is necessary for us to distinguish between sign and symbol: “In fact, there is necessary spiritual distinction between them. A sign only portrays reality; a symbol always qualifies it in a certain way, brining forth a superior reality. To understand symbol is to participate in a presence; to understand sign is to translate an indication. Let us take an example of the cross. In arithmetic, it is a sign of addition; as road sign, it announces the crossing of two roads. But in religion, it is a symbol which expresses and communicates the inexhaustible content of Christianity.
In the Church, symbolism plays very important role, because the entire is, in a way both material and spiritual” Church has a dual character: material and spiritual. ” The material is directly accessible to us; that which is spiritual is indicated through symbols. The symbolism of the Church can not be effectively studied outside of the Liturgy because it is liturgical symbolism and it is through the liturgy that the Fathers explained it. Separated from the divine services, symbolism loses its meaning and becomes a series of sterile abstractions”
Symbols reveal at the same time as they hide. They never completely capture the reality which they sick to express, they always leave something unsaid. This allows symbols to serve as the proper language for what Orthodox theology calls “mystery”. Through symbols of the Church God penetrates his creation and reveals himself to us through our channels of sense. The mother Orthodox Church has always used visible things to help us understand and not to forget invisible realities and meanings that are beyond the reach of our senses.
A person experiences the faith in the Orthodox Church through its art and symbols. A person experiences the faith in the Orthodox Church through its art and symbols. I clearly remember the day when I (Andrey Ageyev, reader of St. Nicholas Parish, Reading, PA ) have entered the church for the first time during bright week of 1985 and got a new feeling (experience) of entering into new and unknown world that was very different to the one we had outside. With all my senses I was able to feel something bigger than everyday life, very exiting, beautiful and inviting. Thinking about the importance of this day of my entire life I only realize now how blessed I was to get my first Christian experience in Orthodox Church. What could happen to me if would have entered Baptist house of prayer or Roman Catholic Church (Kostiol). Would I feel the same? Would I became Christian and Orthodox one in particular? For the reference I would like to mention that in 1985 city of Irkutsk (app. 700,000 people) which is situated in Eastern Siberia of Russian Federation had three Orthodox Churches, one Synagogue, One Baptist House of prayer and One Polish Catholic Building (those days is was Organ hall for performances.)
[1]“Theology of the Icon , L. Ouspensky, p21
I am very confident now that we are all introduced to God though repeating prayers, listening to Orthodox signing, veneration of the Cross and Icons etc. As we grow in our faith we get curious about those symbols and finally start our new spiritual research. Symbols of the Church serve as important and powerful tools for educating newly converted Christians. The use of symbols has very scriptural meaning. Many times the prophets resorted symbolic actions when they felt that words were not enough to convey their message. That is what Jeremiah did when he made bonds and yokes and wore them to express servitude of the Jews: Thus saith the Lord to me: “Make three bonds and yokes, and put them upon me neck” (Jermiah 27:2) The Book of Revelation is replete with symbols. The harlot Babylon is Pagan Rome. The woman pursued into desert is the Church. The plagues suggest that like slaves I the Exodus, the new people of Israel can look forward to deliverance. The rich use of symbolism in Orthodox Church is anchored in Scriptures.
Our churches were built according to the image shown to Moses on Mount Sinai. God himself indicates both its general plan and its disposition, in the smallest details (Exodus 25, 26, 27). “We also learn for the history and archeology that the Christians of the first centuries did not only have catacombs and places of prayer in private homes, as we know from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 12 : 12, 20:7-8; Rom 16:4;1 Cor. 16:19; Col 4:15), but they also build churches above ground. These churches were destroyed in the times of persecution; then they were rebuilt.
“Naturally of central importance to the life of the Eastern Orthodox Church it its worship with the most important service called Divine Liturgy “So essential is it, that at times of persecution, the Church as survived as long as the Divine Service could be performed. Orthodox Liturgical celebrations re-enact and make present the whole of salvation-history, inviting people’s present participation in the past and future. Over and over the hymns for the feast days proclaim that today the events of salvation history occur: today Christ is born; today Christ is risen” …. “ Orthodox Liturgy is inconceivable without the arts ,”specially for newcomers,” in which it participates and through which it expresses itself: Liturgy itself is an art form. The ritual enactment of salvation–history that constitutes Orthodox Divine Services embodies all the arts: music, poetry, icons, Persian style Rugs architecture, the clergy’s richly embroiled and decorated vestments made of exquisite fabrics, many sacred objects crafted from precious metals and stones (Especially the Gospel-Book cover and Communion vessels), cut-glass chandeliers, the carved wood icon-screen , called Iconostasis across the front of the church, plus folk arts, such as embroiled cloths around the icons and carved icon frames. You can imagine, but most of us already know, what impression this surrounding makes on the visitor of the Orthodox Church, who is suddenly surrounded with many candle’s flickering flames and the aroma of incense contribute to the spiritual, emotional mental and physical experience of the beauty of the Divine Presence. When one is caught up in this experience, one joins the Psalmist in singing: “Let my prayer arise in The sight as incense,” (Psalm 143) as one’s total being arises with one’s prayer and is immersed in the Divine beauty.[2]”
[2] The artistic Unity of the Russian Orthodox Church by Jane Merriam de Vyver p. 29-30 “ Orthodoxy has a very rich awareness of the role and effect that beauty plays human life. To be in the Divine Presence is to behold Beauty Itself- the source of all beauty. Beauty affirms the divinity of life and the potential that human person can be restored to the Divine Image. Life without beauty would be impossible. In the west we are usually absorbed with what we call practical, that some people think that beauty is superfluous, unnecessary, impractical: money should be spent to feed people, not adorn churches. Orthodox Christianity in general, and the Russian Church in particular, lives the affirmation that beauty is indispensable and supremely practical: it provides a different kind of food, for the midst of savage brutality, the beauty of flower or icon can very literally save the soul”[4] . Dostoevsky reflects this Russian Orthodox perspective when he says: in The Idiot ” Beauty will sale the world”. Furthermore Christian church corresponds to heavenly prototype, the dwelling -place of the Divine and it must be as beautiful as possible, to correspond to this Divine Beauty!
[3] Article from Understanding the Greek Orthodox Church. Brookline, Massachusetts: Hellenic College Press. 1998., by Constantelos, Demetrios J., page 2, copy from personal library
[4] The artistic Unity of the Russian Othodox Church by Jane Merriam de Vyver p. 31 Two worlds visible and invisible, human and divine are intimately connected in Divine Liturgy. We have always recognized division of all creation into two since: “God created heavens and earth” (Genesis 1:1). When we pray Creed we name God “Maker of all things visible and invisible”. Those two worlds are connected, but their reciprocal differences are so immense that inescapable question arises: what is their boundary? Their boundary is obviously separate them, yet simultaneously joins them. In the Orthodox Church it is obviously the Iconostasis became a symbol of the Boundary and at the same time doors and windows into Healingly Kingdom.
The iconostasis, a prominent characteristic of Orthodox Churches, is a wall or screen of icons that separates the sanctuary* (Holy altar) from the nave, simply speaking human and heavenly. The Holy Altar is the most sacred place in Orthodox temple. The square, free-standing altar is located in the center of the area behind the iconostasis. The altar is throne of God and the Tomb of Christ. Each time the Divine Liturgy is served on the altar, the birth, life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ the Savior are made present realities. The altar is where God’s Presence is manifested, and from which the Holy Light and Life-Creating Mysteries come forth-in the reading of Gospel and in Holy communion
“….the whole altar (in its wholeness) already the place of the invisible, the area set apart from the world, separate, withdrawn dedicated”…The symbolic meaning of the altar differs according to the different symbolic meaning of the temple: but the various meanings converge in aligning the incomprehensible with the actualities of the temple itself. For example, when (following Simeon of Salonica) we see entire temple in Christological terms as Christ God-Man, then the altar signifies the invisible God while the temple means the visible man.. Visible and invisible…. Heaven and earth, altar and temple: this separation can only occur through the visible witness of the invisible world, those lining symbols of the co-inherence of this world and the other…. [5] Iconostasis by Pavel Florensky (St.Vladimir Seminary Press 1996)
