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When the Saints Go Marching In

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When the Saints Go Marching In North wall, Church of Holy Wisdom, New Skete Monas- tery, NY. Photo by Inga Leonova. CLOUD OF WITNESSES When the Saints Go Marching In Stavros Winner The landmark recording of the Ameri- ing from the span of human history. can gospel hymn “When the Saints Go The assembly of saints being vast, di- Marching In” was produced in 1938 vine scrutiny is meted out not accord- by Louis Armstrong and his orches- ing to a creed or profession of correct tra. Undoubtedly, Americans over the dogma, but on the basis of our behav- age of thirty can immediately hear the ior toward one another: did we feed tune in their heads: “Oh, when the the poor? give drink to the thirsty? ex- saints go marching in…Lord, I want tent hospitality to the stranger? clothe to be in that number, when the saints the naked? visit the imprisoned? go marching in.” But what most peo- ple do not know is that the lyrics were The vision portrayed in “When the inspired by the biblical book of Reve- Saints Go Marching In,” drawing on lation and other parts of Scripture. the New Testament, includes details depicted in the icons of some very The vision of the Son of Man in Reve- ancient Christian churches. I have lation 4, which draws on Ezekiel, Isa- experienced the visual impact of this iah, and Daniel for its imagery of the imagery as a worshipper in such di- one enthroned, was often interpreted verse churches as Santa Maria As- in Byzantium as the Pantocrator and sunta on the isle of Torcello, northeast linked with the parable of the Last of Venice; Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo in Judgment (Matt. 25), which describes Ravenna; the katholikon of Vatopedi the Son of Man as he takes his seat on Monastery on Mount Athos; San Min- a throne of glory. According to Reve- eato al Monte in Florence; and the Ab- lation, “all nations will be assembled” bey Church of Saint Foy in Conques, (25:32), referring to every human be- France. It is also the inspiration for the The Wheel 7 | Fall 2016 23 scheme employed in the design and bolism, not the form, since the Ra- decoration of the katholikon at New venna iconography is in mosaic, and Skete, Cambridge, New York—my the style is very classical and rather own community. stiff, with men on the south side and women on the north. New Skete’s un- New Skete’s katholikon (main church), hurried procession focuses on Christ dedicated to Holy Wisdom, has two over the synthronon, the raised seats windows at the east end and three behind the Holy Table that lined the at the west end. They admit the spe- apses of ancient churches. On its wall cial light of sunrise and sunset that behind the Holy Table are depicted dramatizes a cosmic subtext with the bishops, chosen to represent the Church across history and geography, 1 daily reappearance of the sun—the Nicholas Deny- including SS Clement and Ignatius, senko, “Retrieving archetypical sign of Christ who is our a Theology of light and our life. In the rectangular disciples of the apostles, and St. In- Belonging: Eucharist liturgical space, set along an east-west nocent of Alaska, with a fur-trimmed and Church in Post- axis as in earlier basilica-patterned miter. modernity, Part 2,” churches, the very rising of the sun Worship 89 (2015): 36. symbolically orients us to the Lord’s The head of the line of saints at the coming and reinforces our custom of east, at clerestory level, features the facing east to pray. As in the golden apostles and equals-to-the-apostles, era of early Byzantine architecture, the faithful female disciples. At the the altar or holy place is not walled off west end of the line are four proph- by a solid iconostasis, but is demar- ets: Moses, David, Isaiah, and Elijah. cated by an angular U-shaped tem- We made a reasoned choice to make plon screen, which allows clergy and the rest of the depicted assembly as people to see and hear one another diverse as possible, allowing for more and to remain one worshiping body. women and for individuals of both Eastern and Western Churches. In this In both churches at New Skete (the way, we emphasized a point made smaller one erected in 1970 and ded- by Nicholas Denysenko, to which we icated to the Transfiguration and the shall return later—that “the Church larger one completed in 1983 in honor [has] elastic borders designed to in- of Holy Wisdom), the east end is clude all.”1 In the center of the pro- marked by a large image of the Pan- cession, on both sides of the temple, tocrator at the center of the deisis. This we inserted contemporary figures, not icon scheme focuses the prophetic ex- indicated as “saints” by title or the pectation of the Son of Man in Jesus, conventional halo, who are nonethe- conceived and given birth by Mary less holy and worthy of joining in this and baptized by John. Above the heavenly pilgrimage. Mother Maria oak wainscoting on the long north of Paris, whose sanctity was officially and south walls in the Holy Wisdom recognized by the Church of Constan- temple are two lines which extend the tinople sometime after we erected her deisis, and nod to the verse from Mat- image, stands in the south tier, along thew 25, “all nations will be assem- with Dorothy Day of our own country, bled.” whose cause for canonization is open at the Vatican, and Mother (now Saint) Our iconographic scheme is directly Teresa of Calcutta, who was recently modeled on that of Sant’ Apollinare canonized by Pope Francis—these are Nuovo in Ravenna, which dates from all women who lived gospel-centered the sixth century—imitating the sym- lives. 24 Altar, Church of Holy Wisdom, New Skete Monastery, NY. Photo by Inga Leonova. Our times are so afflicted by multifar- in depictions of the Last Judgement ious divisions, many stoked by politi- such as at Torcello, monks, nuns, bish- cians and religious theocrats sowing ops, princes, and rich merchants con- fear and hatred and thereby engen- signed to the flames at the left. But just dering suffering and death. These di- as sacred Scripture should challenge visions have resulted in the colossal us and provoke metanoia (repentance, displacement of Middle East popu- change of mind), so should sacred art. lations; in persecutions; and in the deaths of countless men, women, and We might also have included on our children emerging from the schisms nave walls Matushka Olga Michael of within Islam, in a land where, in the Kwethluk, Alaska, healer and coun- conciliar era, the Christian Church selor, or the educator Sophie Koulum- experienced similarly serious theolog- zin; and Father John Meyendorff, theo- ical rifts. Ecumenism is a movement logian and historian, deserves a place that seeks to heal divisions with love at the side of Father Alexander Schme- and understanding and to build on mann. Given our means and ability at the enormous patrimony we have in the time, however, there was only lim- common, and so we chose to include ited space. three fathers of the ecumenical move- ment that achieved its apogee in the The inclusion of images of Christians 1960s and 70s: Ecumenical Patriarch who were not formally members of Athenagoras I, Pope Paul VI, and the Orthodox Church might be prob- Archbishop Michael Ramsey. The lematic for some. Perhaps it relates to inclusion of these champions of ecu- how one would treat living Roman menism disturbed a few people who Catholics or Anglicans. The approach had not seen them in context, much varies greatly throughout Orthodoxy. less taken account of the overall the- The late Bishop Basil Rodzianko of ology this article espouses. Their un- San Francisco (1980–84), on a visit to ease mirrored the concern expressed New Skete, was delighted to find an by some people in past times to see, icon of St. Francis of Assisi, which was The Wheel 7 | Fall 2016 25 subsequently presented to the Ho- then returned to Orthodoxy and sanna Community in Moscow. When was invited to Russia to help in the bishop was told that our commu- liturgical reform, for which he nity had encountered a few Orthodox was ultimately imprisoned. Or who were not so pleased by its pres- what of St. Nektarios, who died ence, he retorted, “When they get to in 1920 and was the last Ortho- heaven, perhaps there will be parti- dox hierarch to have the courage tions, lest they notice that Orthodox to ordain a woman deacon? Does are not the only ones there!” Brother anyone doubt that these saintly Luke, our former prior, also offered a individuals stand side by side in rationale for our iconographic choices heaven, where God sees no divi- in a Palm Sunday homily several years 2 sion between his children? They Michael Plekon, ago: Hidden Holiness remind us that holiness is not to (Notre Dame: be found exclusively in the com- University of Notre We also find sanctity in modern fortable safety of the familiar, but Dame Press, 2009) martyrs of prejudice, such as in those who challenged the sta- and Living Icons two individuals of Jewish back- tus quo of the status seekers, who (Notre Dame: ground who committed them- University of Notre spoke the uncomfortable truth in Dame Press, 2004). selves to Christ and still died be- the face of criticism and death, cause of their faith and their race: who lived the gospel message St.
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