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The Bible in art
New icons at Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church convey Scripture
By LINDA M. LINONIS
youngstown
At Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church, there is a feast for the eyes in the icons, iconostas, stained-glass windows, soaring dome and architectural details.
But the depictions of the Holy Trinity, the Virgin Mary, Jesus and a host of saints are more than magnificent religious artwork; they touch the soul.
And though members of the church at 526 W. Rayen Ave. regularly worship in this serene and beautiful space, new icons have added even more interest and meaning.
A new icon of the Holy Trinity highlights the wall behind the altar and can be seen when the doors to the iconostas is open. New icons of the Pentecost, the baptism of Ukraine, the Blessed Mother with Jesus and Jesus also have been installed.
Luba Horsky, administrative coordinator at the church and a member since 1956, said, “Icons are reminders of the spiritual world. They are windows into eternity; a holy space depicting reality in the course of humanity.”
She noted that the art of iconography “is the Bible in art and theology in color.” In a newsletter for the church, Horsky cited the seventh Ecumenical Council held in 787 in Nicea — “Icons are in colors what the Scripture are in words: witnesses to the Incarnation, the fact that God has come among us as a person whom we can see, touch and hear, to offer us the new life and begin the new creation.”
Horsky said in the Byzantine Rite tradition, it is said that icons are “written” not painted because they convey a message just as the words of the Bible do. “The icons are two dimensional,” Horsky said. “They glow from within.”
The new icons at Holy Trinity were installed in anticipation of the church’s 100th anniversary in 2011. The church was founded in 1911.
Bishop John Bura of the Eparchy of St. Josephat in Parma, apostolic administrator, will bless the new icons. Monsignor George Appleyard, vicar general, also will participate. Divine Liturgy will be at 1:30 p.m. Sunday followed by a luncheon in the social hall. The Rev. Steven Zarichny is pastor.
Horsky said the installation of the icons leads up to anniversary events next year. They will include a special prayer service Jan. 16 and a liturgy and banquet Oct. 16.
The Holy Trinity icon depicts an event from the Old Testament. It is in these verses from Genesis 18: “And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre; and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw [them], he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant.”
Horsky said the verse is significant because Abraham recognizes “the three in one” of the Trinity — the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit. She said Abraham addressed the three as one by saying “My Lord.”
At the church, the sanctuary features a depiction of “toweling,” taken from the Old Testament. “When Moses and the Israelites were carrying the ark and stopped, they would protect it with a barrier of towels,” Horsky said. That imagery surrounds the altar space and is a decorative design.
The iconostas is the decorative separation between the nave and sanctuary. “It was built by craftsmen who came from Ukraine,” Horsky said. It was constructed in 1919.
Horsky said it is the symbolic division between earth and heaven, but the faithful have access to heaven.
The other new icon, Pentecost, reflects the birth of the church.
And the other, the baptism of Ukraine, includes St. Vladimir, St. Anna and St. Andrew, who brought Christianity to Ukraine.
Icons of St. Vladimir and St. Olga highlight the choir loft.
The iconographer is Dennis Bell of Painesville. A native of Warren, he graduated from Warren G. Harding High School and Youngstown State University.
Bell has been an iconographer for more than 20 years.
The former Mahoning Valley resident said he gained an appreciation for icons when he attended St. John’s Orthodox Church and St. Mark’s Orthodox Church. “Looking at the icons is like stepping into another world theologically. It makes you feel like you have one foot in the kingdom already,” he said in a story published in 2008 for the 70th anniversary of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Warren. Bell did icon murals on the nave walls and altar.