The day approaches when the first words of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom: “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” will sound in the new St. Seraphim Cathedral on Wycliff Avenue in Dallas. Soon the much grown family of worshippers,— both the old-timers and the newcomers, the faithful and the inquirers, those who were born in this country and those who came to it recently,—will join in their thanksgiving to God for all the incredible things that He has done to build His church. For “except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it” (Ps. 127:1a). We are warned by the psalmist that if we built a larger and more beautiful church for the purpose of our own self-glorification, all our efforts would be futile. On the contrary, our ultimate goal should be the glory of God and the proclamation of His Kingdom. By building the new cathedral we are extending the tabernacle of divine presence in the world that has rejected the very idea of the holy. We are erecting a new altar to the Unknown God who revealed Himself in Jesus Christ in the intellectual culture that made revelation the subject of ridicule and in the pop-culture that is enamored of idols.

The exterior of the church is meant to transform its surroundings, while the interior is meant to bring closer to God those who worship inside. The iconostasis will provide a “window into the kingdom of heaven,” it will direct and focus our attention on God and on the path to holiness. When in the liturgy we are invited: “let us lift up our hearts,” and we respond: “we lift them up unto the Lord, ” our eyes and hearts meet Christ Pantokrator—the central icon of the deisis row of the iconostasis. It is a common experience of all Orthodox Christians that icons can speak, sometimes as eloquently as the words of the Gospel itself. Icons proclaim God to the iconoclastic world. Icons testify to the reality of the incarnation in which the incircumscribable God became circumscribed in the flesh, the invisible image of the Father became visible for our sake, the inexpressible God emptied Himself and became expressible in color. By placing before our eyes painted images the Church reminds us of the restoration of the unpainted image that God desires to complete in our hearts. Since the icons play such a central role in worship, the selection of the iconographer is no easy task.

After a two year deliberation and prayerful consideration of different styles and proposals, an iconographer from Ukraine, Vladimir Grigorenko, was commissioned to write the icons for the iconostasis . Mr. Grigorenko is an accomplished iconographer, who has designed and completed two iconostases: one for the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. John the Theologian in Moscow, Russia, and the other for the Cathedral of Transfiguration in his home town of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. For details of the iconostasis from the Cathedral of Transfigurations see: Theotokos of Iver’, Savior Not-Made-by-Hand, Wise Thief Entering Paradise, Christ Pantokrator, Two Hierarchs. In addition, he wrote numerous icons and designed iconographic compositions for a number of Russian and Ukrainian parishes (e.g., Church of All Saints, Dnepropetrovsk; Church of St. Panteleimon on the Topol; Church of St. Nicholas on Amur; the Trinity Cathedral in Dnepropetrovsk). Mr. Grigorenko’s works are housed in a number of private collections of Israel, Japan, Yugoslavia, Sweden, Germany, and the republics of the former Soviet Union. He has also restored many 18th-19th c. icons for the churches and private collections all around the world.

Mr. Grigorenko works predominantly, but not exclusively, in the style of the Russian Golden Age of iconography of the 14-15th century. One of the well-known representatives of this style is St. Andrew Rublev, whose famous icon Holy Trinity has become a definitive iconographic expression of the Orthodox Faith for the Christian world at large. In a private conversation Mr. Grigorenko observed that in matters of style he is drifting towards the 11-12th century Byzantine school, which was an inspiration for the Russian iconographers of the same and later periods. Among many striking examples of this style one could name the Theotokos of Vladimir, as well as the frescoes of Hagia Sophia Cathedrals is Kiev and Novgorod. (cf. Theotokos of Vladimir by Mr. Grigorenko).

Apart from being universally recognized as a spiritual jewel, the proposed style of iconography will be especially fitting for our new St. Seraphim Cathedral, since the latter is modeled upon the two greatest expressions of Russian white-stone architecture of the 12th century, St. Dmitri’s Cathedral in Vladimir and the church of the Protection of the Theotokos on Nerl’ in Bogolyubovo. This style has never been surpassed by later generations of Russian church architects.

All icons for the new iconostasis will be written using the ancient techniques, described in the tenth century document, known as the Manuscript of Theophilus. This famous book prescribes the use of genuine gold leaf for the background of the icons, natural minerals as paint pigments, and egg yolk as a paint binder. All the stages of the iconographic work—the manufacture of the icon boards, the preparation of paint, the gilding, and painting—will be carried out manually.

The form and carvings of the icon-screen were likewise suggested by the classical surviving examples of the 12th century Russian iconostasis, e.g., that of the Church of St. Panteleimon in Neresi (1164). The two-row iconostasis will be concordant with the tradition of prayer that has developed in the old St. Seraphim Cathedral for several decades. The carvings for the iconostasis will be provided by the best American woodwork companies. Elaborate carvings will cover the Royal Doors and the six bottom panels of the iconostasis. Current plans, pending the blessing of His Eminence Dmitri, are to use Mahogany as the major façade wood. The reddish tint of the Mahogany will be an elegant contrast to the almost cranberry red carpeting to be installed in the Altar area. The organization of the woodwork project, including the floor and carvings, is placed into the capable hands of our parishioners , Dr. Hugh and Sharon Cole, who are working in close cooperation with Mr. Nicholas Ozerov and the members of the building committee.

It is projected that the on-site work on the iconostasis will begin in April 2000. As we informed our readers before, a substantial part of this project still remains to be funded.