March 3, 2008
The church is not a museum piece
In my previous posting, I had laid a spread of questions on the table regarding the arts and Orthodoxy and my frustration with no contemporaries to look to for guidance, inspiration, and fellowship. These frustrations are accentuated by the idea that there is a fullness of the arts that ought to be created, expressed, and shared with the world, a fullness that just isn’t that prevalent in America. And it’s the idea of that fullness that has put a desire in me to find answers, and God willing, be a part of the awakening of the arts in the Orthodox church in America.
I concede to our Catholic brothers, that at least as it pertains to America, they do have a much broader expression and influence in the arts. They have a variety of musical expressions seen in their liturgy, they do not place unspoken limits on visual depictions (i.e. Byzantinian style iconography), and there have been many prolific examples of artists through the years that created in the name of Christ and His Church.
But I’m not content to just sit back and let the Catholics have all the fun. 
I’m presently reading Introducing the Orthodox Church: Its Faith and Life by A. M. Coniaris for our catechumen class, and there was a few paragraphs that brought out a resounding “YES!” when I read it.
We Orthodox have a great past, a great tradition. We are proud of this. But we must not live in the past. Where are our John Chrystostoms today? Our Basils? … We have the apostolic doctrine. We have the apostolic succession. But we can have, too, the apostolic power of the Holy Spirit to produce new and powerful witnesses for the Lord today, new Church Fathers — not carbon copies of the old but originals as they were. For God is always more interested in producing originals than carbon copies.
The Orthodox Church is not a museum of the first thousand years of Christianity. We must not succumb to the temptation that the Fathers have said everything and that all we have to do is to repeat them verbatim. Father Florovsky has reminded us that the notion of “father” is not limited to the period called “Patristic”. St. Gregory of Palamas, for example, was a “Church Father” in the fourteenth century. To repeat, to have Church Fathers is a permanent dimension of the Church. The Fathers beget us in the faith that we in turn might become fathers under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit who empowered and guided the early Fathers.
Introducing the Orthodox Church: Its Faith and Life by A. M. Coniaris; pg 80-81
This passage gives me a sense of hope, that I can join in the great community of artists that have gone before us and help pass on a legacy of art in its fullness.
However, I also have to qualify this by my acknowledgment that I am just a catechumen of the Orthodox faith and therefore am but a catechumen as far as Orthodox expressions in art is concerned. But perhaps if I look to some of the early and present monastics, from where some of our liturgical music has come from, perhaps I can learn from them and apply their legacy and create art that is unique to our region, our period in history, and unique to who I am in Christ, in the Church, and in the general community.
I’m fortunate to be in the Antiochian Orthodox community in America, as they are perhaps one of the least culturally-bound facets of Orthodoxy. With over 75% of its priests being converts from other faiths and not being Arabic by descent, there is a great deal of diversity of culture and heritage within the Antiochian Orthodox Church. And this gives me hope for what role I may have in the years to come as an Orthodox artist, through music, photography, and other creative expressions. I have no clue what those expressions will look like, but the more time I spend in the community, in the Scriptures, in keeping my own rule of prayer and liturgy, and communing with God and His Church, I think those expressions will naturally come from within.
Following up:
If you’re an Orthodox Christian and are involved in the arts (non-traditionally — i.e., not necessarily in iconography or chanted hymns) I would love to connect up with you and start a dialog on this subject. I’m particularly interested in expressions in truly “contemporary” music and facets of the visual arts including photography and multimedia.
Some sites I’ve found on the topic at hand:
jacwell.org
NY Times
sor.cua.edu
Written and posted by Michael on March 3, 2008, 2:02 pm.
Filed under: Culture, General Discussion, Orthodoxy
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wezlo said,
March 3, 2008 @ 7:17 pm
You know I once asked a professor of mine at Eastern, “Uh, where’s our Athanasius today?” He smiled and told me to keep my eyes open because they were out there.
This professor is a patristics scholar.