www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Icons & Iconography Weird Iconostases

Funny thing is that there really is no Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church like this in Cleveland, Ohio. If you look closely at the photos in the catalog, it looks like the "church" has been staged in a larger warehouse or something. We all know, from the numerous forum discussions about the entity known as Monastery Icons [catholicinformation.aquinasandmore.com] , that this fake organization is up to no good and seemingly will do whatever it takes to sell their garbage.

Rybak,

Actually, there MAY be, but it's not a canonical church - if it's indeed the one pictured here. There is a parish, so titled, of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church of North & South America - SOBORNOPRAVNA. Its mailing address is 3593 Westpark Road, Cleveland, OH 44111 - that doesn't appear to be its physical location though, judging by google map street views.

Many years,

Neil

That makes sense. I've seen that promo in their catalog and have marvelled that any self-respecting Orthodox church should elect to have its iconostasis outfitted with those Disney-like commercially mass-produced pictures from Monastery Icons. Pardon me, but they look like cartoons. I've never cared for their products.

Neil,

Right, it does not appear on Google maps. Perhaps I should have said no "real" Orthodox church by that name. I think there is more than one UOAC "jurisdiction" operating parishes which pop up and then disappear in various parts of the country. Its just too hard to keep up with all the nonsense these fakes are up to - something that has been discussed on the forum many times.

I do not doubt the Monastery Icons group would be behind the charade of setting up a fake church to sell their stuff. It would fit in nicely to their marketing plan.

Years ago, I remember seeing a photo of a very odd looking iconostasis in a coffee table book on the Catholic Church.
Instead of icons of Christ and the Theotokos on either side of the royals doors, statues of Jesus and Mary were placed. I believe there were lights bulbs used to surround the statues.

Oh, if only I could remember the title of that book!

The Polish Church looks nice, the others...not so much.

Black Coffee. Greetings from San Antonio. Where in Texas are you?

The "Orthodoxy in America" site has the following info:

Holy Resurrection Church
Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
6201 Detroit Ave
Cleveland, OH 44102
216/651-2879

However, the ROCOR directory does not list this parish. Since the photo has been in Monastery Icons catalogs for many years now, perhaps this parish has since closed?

Fr. David

Bless, Father David,

Google Maps street view shows an onion-domed church at the address. I can't get sufficient resolution to read the exterior sign, but it's fairly obvious that it's no longer serving as an Orthodox church.

An interior shot shows the framework of an iconostasis in place but w/ the icons replaced by what appear to be either white or translucent panels w/ silhouette profiles of people painted on them. The interior is full of blue and white balloons at ceiling level.

Comparing the iconostasis framework in the photos associated with the Google Map with that in the MI catalog, they aren't the same. The one at the former ROCOR parish is taller and has rounded frames, versus the MI one, comprised of rectangular and square frames.

See: https://ssl.panoramio.com/photo/54299925 and https://ssl.panoramio.com/photo/54299991

Many years,

Neil

Oh, how terrible!
Reminds me of what has happened to Saint Vibiana's, the former cathedral of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

http://www.vibianala.com/

Adding to the collection of weird iconostasia, here is one in Hungary:

https://picasaweb.google.com/102410724108066446994/Templombucsu2011LiturgiaEsKormenet

I once saw a photo of a similar stained glass iconostas in Romania, but I can't seem to find it again.

Fr. David

Apparently weirdness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

Here's an odd one...

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/56430701

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/56429634

Are we deliberately going looking for unusual [ a much better term than weird ] Iconostases ?

Roman,

I think the Ukrainian church you link to features icons in the "folk icon" style. Many people really like that style.

The other issue with that church is that it was formerly a non-eastern church. It is almost always challenging to try to remodel a western style church building into an eastern one.