Dear Friends in Christ,

Two years ago Holy Resurrection was blessed to move to larger and more beautiful buildings. We were able to transform a former protestant church into a traditional Orthodox temple with a beautiful iconostasis and some hand-painted icons, mainly by Father Andrew Tregubov of Claremont, NH, an iconographer of great learning and talent. Our Church has adopted his proposed long-range plan for the entire temple. This mailing is to offer an opportunity to participate in this project, which will be a witness to the beauty of God and a cultural asset for all of Mississippi, God willing, for many years to come.

Orthodox Christianity has traditionally emphasized beauty as an attribute of God and of what is godly. Many passages in the Scriptures where we see the English word good actually have a form of the word kalos in Greek, of which the primary meaning is beautiful. (For example Genesis 1:4 LXX, Matt. 13:8). This emphasis on beauty is seen in the popular story of how the tenth-century emissaries of St. Vladimir recommended eastern Christianity for his kingdom because they “could not forget the beauty” of the worship in the Church of the Holy Wisdom in Constantinople, saying, “We knew not whether we were on earth or in heaven.”

Our present age often seems at war with beauty. Much of our art, literature, architecture, and even clothing seem to disdain it. Perhaps this is because the concept of beauty is connected with order and harmony; it implies that the universe is a kosmos, a harmonious whole, and things are beautiful as they harmonize with it. Today many have lost faith that there is an order; they see all that exists as meaningless and random or else a dismal closed chain of causes, so there is no cosmic beauty with which to be in harmony. In particular, humans are no longer seen as the image of God, the crown and purpose of creation, so the human form is no longer depicted or clothed with dignity and beauty but often parodied and distorted with bizarre colors, piercings, and tattoos.

But people do yearn for beauty. Could it be that the particular calling of Orthodox Christians in this age is to show God’s truth and righteousness revealed in His beauty and glory and joy? Many people come to this Temple from the chaos that reigns in their lives and find healing through its beauty. May they look at this beauty in the icons and see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6), and be changed into the same image from glory to glory (2 Cor .3:18). Let us invite them to “Come and see!” (John 1:39).

In Christ,

Fr. Paul Yerger