Aesthetics on Christian Image, Stanford - Saratoga
Saturday, March 5th was a very special day at Stanford University and the entire San Francisco Bay Area. With great organization of the Orthodox Christian Fellowship at Stanford, our Diocese, and with great help from His Grace Bishop Maxim and local Serbian Orthodox communities, we welcomed three well-known professors from different parts of the world – Very Rev. Archimandrite Dr. John Pantelimon Manoussakis, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Holy Cross Theological School, Dr. Cornelia Tsakiridou, professor of Philosophy at LaSalle University, and Dr. George Kordis, professor Emeritus of Iconography at University of Athens. All three came to give us varying lectures on Christian Orthodox Icons, their beauty, meaning, and further future in the twenty first century.
Stanford’s Jordan Hall was well attended despite the fact that we had occasional thunderstorms throughout the day. Many of us arrived wet and chilly in the hall, but anxious to hear the lecturers. In the audience, in addition to our very own Bishop Maxim, we were also pleased to have His Eminence Metropolitan Gerasimos of Greek Orthodox Church. Introduction of guests, was skillfully executed by moderator Neda Cvijetic, parishioner of St. Michael’s Church.
Fr. Panteleimon, in his brief speech titled Images as ‘vision of the invisible’, lectured about icons in a philosophical way. He explained the meaning of the phenomenology of icons that are closely connected with aesthetics and beauty as an external expression of God and His Saints.
Dr. Cornelia Tsakiridou spoke on the topic titled “The Orthodox Icon: Aesthetic Nepsis, Enargeia, and Teophany” in which she explained all the terms listed in the title.
Finally, iconographer, Dr. George Kordis, spoke about the post-modern world and how to create a Christian Image – an Icon that satisfies human being in the era of tremendous technological development in our times and in times to come.
After these magnificent lessons, numerous questions were fielded from the audience regarding many different aspects of icons. Our guests listened to all the questions patiently, and answered them accordingly.
We left Stanford with great feelings of being spiritually nourished with joy and happiness that we were part of this magnificent event.
But this was not the end of our spiritual uplifting! On Sunday morning, March 6th our guests, along with His Grace Bishop Maxim came to St. Michael Church in Saratoga, for a morning Hierarchical Divine Liturgy. The Liturgy was well attended by the faithful of St. Michael Parish as well as several parishioners of neighboring parishes, so the feeling of a joyous day was growing from the very beginning. Fr. Panteleimon delivered an inspirational sermon speaking about the Gospel reading. Many children and adults received Holy Eucharist, and the Service ended with fatherly words from His Grace Bishop Maxim.
The reception for guests and His Grace Bishop Maxim was organized in our Church social center with a great number of faithful. The program included introduction of our guests. Neda Cvijetic announced each of them by giving a significant detail about each guest. At the end, there came, perhaps the most aesthetic moment of this event – George Kordis was demonstrating how to paint an Icon by painting our Patron St. Archangel Michael. The whole process was broadcast directly to Youtube and was visible in a real time. It is still possible to view at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbr2okXiWIM. All faithful were very much amazed how quickly and yet beautifully, the icon was completed. At the end, Ron Radakovich challenged our audience, offering $5,000 to ‘purchase’ the Icon and take it to the Moraga parish, but Nenad Vukicevic came to be a winner of this sudden ‘raffle’, so the Icon will remain in the possession of St. Michael Parish. The day was concluded with so much of spiritual satisfaction for this God-given event. We can only cry out with all the joy and happiness; Glory be to God for all!
Source: Western American Diocese
