www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Photo Gallery New Iconostasis at St. Michael's Mission in North Carolina

Dear Friends in Christ,

Here are some of the images of our new iconostasis at St. Michael's Mission in North Carolina. It was constructed like the earlier Byzantine templon and inspired by New Skete's design. The additional images are of my father (who is a deacon) and myself serving the Divine Liturgy with our pastor, Fr. Mark.

The mission iconostasis evolved from two icons on small tables, to two bi-fold closet doors to it's current state.

The 1700 sq foot retail space is ideal for the mission at this time. We built an large L-shaped wall in a section of the space, then constructed a platform and then built the iconostasis. The new construction took approximately 4 weeks to complete and was done by a small number of mission volunteers, including my family and my father-in-law.

We still have a number of more cosmetic gold items to add to it. The theme is the Lord's Vineyard and the molding is made up of grapevines.

Please say a prayer today for our little mustard seed mission in the Southland!

God bless,

Fr. Deacon Daniel

Awesome is our Lord in the sharing of His talents. Truly a labor and love and beautiful gift to the Lord and his people. Thanks for sharing.

pretty. But where are the deacon doors?

The deacon doors are truly North and South facing, as opposed to simply facing the congregation. It has been interesting serving this way - it makes their purpose all the more clear.

Are those Monastery Icons I see in the altar (proskomedie and opposite side along with the processional cross)???? They definitely look like it when you click on the photos for enlargements.

Secret Squirrel,

Great catch! (The eyes of a squirrel miss nothing...) Since we are a mission, one must never look a gift horse in the mouth, as they say.

Eventually, when we get the funds, these will all be replaced by commissioned icons.

God bless,

Fr. Deacon Daniel

Father Deacon Daniel,
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Congratulations on the new iconostas!
Please tell me where in North Carolina you are.
Deacon El

Beautiful!

Thank you!

Southern Pines, NC

Saint Michael's Mission [saintmichaelschapel.org] ]

Dear Father Deacon Daniel:

Very nice !

In Christ:;
Einar

I should also add that we were very grateful to the generous donor! So long as we were not purchasing icons from Monastery Icons and made sure that the icons for the iconostasis were from St. Isaac the Syrian Skete, I felt comfortable using them until we could have other icons commissioned. The donor even said as much...

It looks well crafted (someone is very talented!) but why was New Skete chosen as the model? Most of their reforms have been rejected.

The curtain does not seem appropriate when there really is no screen to the right or left.

Is the plan to eventually replace the little icons with full sized icons that fill the vertical space? That would give the chapel a more traditional look and feel of a Byzantine temple.

There is enough room here for a traditional icon screen, one scaled down to fit the room size and considering that this is a mission.

John,

Thanks for your questions.

I started a discussion on this topic here, since I am curious about the opinion of people in this regard:
The "Open" Iconostasis

You are correct, as far as the fact that it was designed in such a way to allow for larger or smaller icons. The icons that are there currently were the ones that were on the small, bi-fold closet doors which used to serve as our iconostasis:
Bi-Fold Closet Door Iconostasis [saintmichaelschapel.org]

Part of the reason we have the smaller icons is financial. My preference would be to install larger ones - perhaps tall, full figured ones which reach the top of the iconostasis and ideally ones next to the North and South doors as well - but we do not have the funding for that at present. For now, we have framed the former icons and attached them with L-brackets to the iconostasis.

At the same time, I would not want to block the view entirely of the altar area. This I believe is in keeping with earlier Byzantine practice. It was a later development to block the altar entirely from the view of the nave. The curtain serves the purpose of respecting the Mystery present in the Church after the Divine Liturgy.

Very cool! Before moving to Chicago, I was a parishoner at SS Cyril and Methodius in Cary. Fr. Mark served as a deacon there before his ordination to the priesthood. From the looks of things, he is bearing much fruit for the Lord!

I'm also excited to hear that the mission is located in Southern Pines. My family vacations in Pinehurst, so I will definitely stop by for a visit next time I'm in the area.

Thanks for pictures, Fr. Deacon Daniel!

It reminds me of a number of the really old churches in France and Italy. The most famous that came to mind was that of St Marks in Venice. I noted while in the Museum in the Sacristy of St Peter's an old sketch of the main altar in the old basilica and it had a huge curtin in front of the altar (very Roman).