Reflective Tour: St Mary's Runwell

St Mary’s Runwell: A reflective tour of its art and architecture

St Mary's is a magnificent mediaeval building which boasts an interesting and mixed history. The church is often described by both visitors and regular worshippers as a powerful sacred space to which they have been drawn. This powerful impact comes in part from the art and architecture in the space. This leaflet provides information about that aspect of the building and suggests reflections and prayers as you view the building and its artworks.

To find out more about St Mary's Runwell or to visit click here.

Art and architecture

The modern rood screen in the perpendicular style is by W.F. Unsworth (1909). The figure of Our Lord on the cross is suspended from a tie beam, west of the rood screen, is in memory of Paymaster Lieutenant John Rochester Graves, RNVR, who died in HMS Hood in 1941. The colouring of the screen at St Mary's and the murals the one pillar in the south aisle dates from the 1930s-1950s and was undertaken, by his sons, under the guidance of then Rector, Revd John Edward Bazille-Corbin to 'reproduce as closely as possible' the decoration of the medieval church.

The painting of St Peter and the crucifix below it were by Anthony Corbin and are 'restorations of medieval work which had been well and truly scraped out, but the traces of which could, at that date, still be faintly seen.' Two modern olive wood statues depict Our Lady and Our Lord, the latter given as a thank-offering for the remarkable survival and recovery of a son of Bazille-Corbin, from injuries received during service in the 1939-45 war. The statue of Our Lady was carved by a Carmelite Sister who had carved a similar statue for the Shrine Church in Walsingham.

The chancel is entirely perpendicular in style. The original fifteenth century East window with three trefoiled lights in four centred heads with a moulded hood, was reset in the east wall when the chancel was lengthened in 1907. A slim one-light cinque-foiled east window high over the chapel altar contains the only surviving fragments of medieval stained glass. The rest of the stained glass is modern and is entirely taken up with memorials to various members of the Kemble family with the exceptions of the east window of the chancel and the west window in the tower. This is in memory of the mother of the Rev. H.K. Harris, Rector 1891-1912. The figure of Gabriel, the Archangel, is in the west window.

A large painting of 'The Baptism of Our Lord' by Enid Chadwick of Walsingham was gifted to the church by Fr David John Silk Lloyd. Local woodworker David Garrard has crafted Stations of the Cross using the motif of the Runwell Cross (found originally on the Prioresses Tomb) which have been placed around the church. Garrard also built an altar for the side chapel together with an inscribed cross on the side chapel wall.

The south door ‘unusually wide and large’ has an original, fifteenth century oak door with original hinges and strapwork. The timber has a curious burn-like mark said to be the mark of the ‘Devil’s claw’. An interesting feature is the medieval scratched sundial on the west jamb of the doorway. The south chapel contains two original piscine and a squint.

Reflective tour

Inscribed cross: Reflect on your start in life, your own personal mortality, and the ways God has been present with you on your journey through life and will be with you into eternity.

Annunciation windows: Reflect on the possibilities that always exist for new beginnings and fresh opportunities in life. Pray that God will break into your life or those of others just as Gabriel suddenly appeared to Mary.

Nativity window: Reflect on Jesus moving into our neighbourhood. Pray for your neighbourhood that Christ may be recognised there.

‘The Baptism of Our Lord’: Reflect on your need for turning away from what is wrong in your life and finding new direction. Hear God speaking to you, as to Jesus, saying, “You are my beloved child.”

Statues of Our Lady: Reflect on Mary's lifelong commitment to God. Pray for inspiration from Our Lady and for your own commitment to be strengthened.

Peter (window and mural): Reflect on Peter’s courage and fallibility in walking on water and then sinking. Pray that you might be used by God, as Peter was, despite your own fallibilities.

Stations of the Cross: Reflect on the many ways in which people suffer throughout the world. Pray for people, countries and situations of which you know where people are suffering today.

Crucifixion: Reflect on Christ’s sacrifice of his life for you. Pray that you may know Christ through participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.

Resurrection window: Reflect on the transformation that Jesus’ resurrection brought to the disciples. Pray for resurrection in any circumstances where things seem to have come to a dead end.

Devil's claw: Reflect on the ways in which evil manifests itself today. Pray that goodness may always be stronger than evil and love than hate.

Gabriel window: Reflect on the meaning of Gabriel’s name – “strength of God.” Ask that you might be strengthened by God and God’s angels in whatever challenges you currently face.

Prioress’s tomb: Reflect on the Runwell Cross, formed by four circles in a square; the instrument of our redemption set within a sign of the perfection of God. Pray that you might know God more fully in his divinity and his humanity.

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Walsingham Way - Hymns To The Virgin Mary.

Sabbatical Art Pilgrimage: Latest ArtWay report

My latest Church of the Month report for ArtWay focuses on churches in Little Walsingham:

'The Guild Chantry Chapel of St. Michael and the Holy Souls, designed by Laurence King in 1965, is the most modern of the worship spaces at the Anglican Shrine. The chapel has abstract glass, a crucifix carved in wood by Siegfried Pietsch, and a low-relief fibreglass sculpture by John Hayward depicting St. Michael defeating Satan. Both Pietsch and Hayward worked with the Faith Craft organization, which was based at one time in the Abbey Mill in the city of St. Albans. “For over 50 years Faith Craft artists and designers produced stained glass, vestments, statues and other carvings, liturgical furniture, sacred vessels and other ornaments for the beautification of God’s worship”.

Hayward also designed and executed the east window at St. Mary and All Saints Little Walsingham. His complex design includes saints to which the church is dedicated, other sites of pilgrimage, founders of monastic orders associated with Walsingham, the story of Walsingham, and the fire that devastated this church in 1961. The window was installed for the re-consecration of the church in 1964.'

This Church of the Month report follows on from others about Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Coventry Cathedral, Église de Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal, Eton College Chapel, Lumen, Notre Dame du Léman, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce, Plateau d’Assy,Romont, Sint Martinuskerk Latem, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Alban Romford, St. Andrew Bobola Polish RC Church, St. Margaret’s Church, Ditchling, and Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, St Mary the Virgin, Downe, and St Paul Goodmayes, as well as earlier reports of visits to sites associated with Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antoni Gaudi and Henri Matisse.

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Van Morrison - Hymns To The Silence. 

Windows on the world (373)

Walsingham, 2014

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Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Question Of Faith.

Windows on the world (372)

Walsingham, 2014

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Anthony D'Amato - Ludlow.

Windows on the world (371)

Walsingham, 2014

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Elbow - Gentle Storm.

Windows on the world (370)

Walsingham, 2014

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Robbie Robertson - Broken Arrow.

Sabbatical art pilgrimage: Walsingham

The Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham ‘occupies an island site in Walsingham, close to the ruins of the original medieval Priory.’ The present-day Shrine ‘was gradually created in 1931 from derelict farm buildings and cottages, with a brand new Shrine Church in the south-east corner of the site.’ The Shrine, established by Fr. Alfred Hope Patten, has continued to be developed with modern accommodation blocks, refectory, visitors centre, gardens and chapels.

Jane Quail's beautiful Stations of the Cross based on the Beatitudes were installed in the grounds in 2001 and are much loved by pilgrims. As with the Stations of the Cross by Irene Ogden at St Julian's Church in Norwich, this imaginative artwork makes creative textual and visual connections between the events of the 14 Stations and scriptures not normally associated with those events. These are artworks which integrate scriptures creating a harmonious whole and opening up the scriptures to other interpretations and connections.

Quail is a sculptor in wood and stone who was born in India, where she admired a great deal of sculpture at an early age. She attended an art course in Durban, Natal, and then worked for a time with Canon Ned Paterson, founder of the Cyrene Mission School in Zimbabwe where he taught painting and sculpture. Sharing a studio with her husband Paul Quail, her ecclesiastical work began in earnest in the early 1980s. She has carved figures or relief panels in stone and wood for many churches throughout the British Isles and also for churches abroad. Among these commissions are reliefs for the fountain of the Roman Catholic Shrine at Walsingham and sculptures at St Margaret Cley and St Paul Goodmayes.

The Guild Chantry Chapel of St Michael and the Holy Souls, designed by Laurence King in 1965, is the most modern of the worship spaces at the Anglican Shrine. The chapel has abstract glass, a crucifix carved in wood by Siegfried Pietsch and a low relief fibre-glass sculpture by John Hayward depicting St Michael defeating Satan. Both worked with the Faith Craft organisation, which was based at one time in the Abbey Mill in St. Albans. ‘For over 50 years Faith Craft artists and designers produced stained glass, vestments, statues and other carvings, liturgical furniture, sacred vessels and other ornaments for the beautification of God’s worship.’

Hayward also designed and executed the east window at St Mary and All Saints Little Walsingham. His complex design includes saints to which the church is dedicated, other sites of pilgrimage, founders of monastic orders associated with Walsingham, the story of Walsingham and the fire which in 1961 devastated this church. The window was installed for the re-consecration of the church in 1964.

Hayward is famous for his distinctive stained glass windows such as the Great West Window in Sherborne Abbey, Dorset, and the Millennium Windows at Norwich Cathedral. In the early 1960s, however, he was interested in creating ‘whole interiors’ of church, including wall paintings, furnishings and stained glass. St. Michael’s London Fields is a good example of a church where Hayward had the opportunity to do this. His art is integral to the fabric of the building in the basilican style, and includes the Apostles’ Windows on the east side of the church, nine murals depicting scenes of the ministry of angels throughout the Bible, an aluminium sculpture of St. Michael slaying the dragon at the entrance of the church and the Christus Rex hanging over the altar. Like Nugent F. Cachmaille-Day, he drew inspiration from the Liturgical Movement, believing that art could be the ‘handmaid of liturgy’.

Following exhibitions in the church and with the support of Art in Churches, three works of contemporary art were added to the church (all grouped at the entrance to the Lady Chapel) between 1985 and 1988. 'Spring Carpet' is a painting by John Riches who derives from Norwich returning in 1972 to teach at the Norwich School of Art. His interest in church iconography and mediaeval decoration has strongly influenced his later work. 'Spring Carpet' speaks of new life by means of light filtered through branches speckling the earth which harbours the new buds of life. 'Genesis' is a sculpture in resin bronze by Naomi Blake which is dedicated to the sanctity of life and depicts a mother and child. Blake is a Jewish sculptor, born in Czechoslovakia, whose work can also be seen at Bristol and Norwich Cathedrals. Ruth Duckworth's untitled ceramic relief was installed in 1988 with the support of Art in Churches. The coloured folds which emerge from the alcove in two distinct sections suggest, on some interpretations, this present life and that to come.

The Roman Catholic Church of the Annunciation is a beautiful new church in the Norfolk round tower tradition, which was designed by local architect and parishioner, Anthony Rossi. It is the first carbon-neutral church in the UK being built with solar panels for electricity and a deep-bore heat exchange system. Located within the heart of historic Walsingham, it was dedicated on the Feast of the Annunciation in 2007. This ‘new church has taken traditional forms and materials and repackaged them in a fresh and innovative way to create a locally distinctive building’.

‘The west and east windows have simple patterns of leads of varying widths, with accents of colour produced by handmade glass. They were designed by the architect and made by M C Lead Glaziers from near Norwich. The same firm fitted the dominant north window designed and made by the artist Paul San Casciani of Oxford. Hung against it is a powerful bronze corpus of the dead Christ by the artist Mark Coreth from near Salisbury. Other decorative glass in the aumbry, font and entrance screen is by Jane Charles of Newcastle, supplied through the Bircham Gallery at Holt.’

‘Best known for his wonderful portrayal of the wildlife of Africa Mark Coreth has that rare ability to capture the unique wild spirit of a creature without descending to kitsch. He is self taught, relying on his very perceptive eye and instinctive understanding of animals.’ Jane Charles is one of the leading contemporary glassmakers in the UK. 'Her inspiration comes from working with molten glass together with the shapes, colours and moods of the natural world.' Paul San Casciani is a specialist glass painter who has worked on commissions for notable buildings such as Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral and who likes to explore the decorative possibilities of stained glass, combining traditional and modern techniques in novel ways. While at the Whitefriars Studio, he worked with Ervin Bossanyi. His book, The Technique of Decorative Stained Glass, is a project-based guide and reference explains traditional and modern techniques of stained glass.

‘The combination of the powerful sculpture of the dead Christ and the light radiating from the centre of the window is designed to represent Christ’s crucifixion followed by his Resurrection, and the redemption and transfiguration of the human race through Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary. The design is based on the early Christian sign of the fish. The hill of Calvary is represented by the green tones at the base of the window and the red areas, with enlarged blood corpuscles, represent Christ’s Precious Blood. The deep blue glass suggests the darkened sky of Good Friday being dispersed by the radiating light of the Resurrection.

The sculptor wished to show Christ at the point of death and the wound in His side, which followed His death, is therefore omitted. The figure was initially modeled in clay and subsequently cast in bronze, and was exhibited in London with other sculptures by the same artist before being brought to Walsingham and installed in the church’ (Parish Guide).

Finally, ‘the inspiration for establishing an Orthodox church presence in Walsingham began with the building of the Anglican Shrine in 1931. Inspired by one of the Guardians of the Shrine, Fr Hope Patten invited the Orthodox to take part in the venture. Archbishop Seraphim of the Russian Orthodox Church in Exile in Paris came to bless a plot of land to the south of the restored Holy House, with the intention of building an Orthodox chapel.

Though this plan was never carried out, a small Orthodox chapel was included in the Shrine, furnished with an icon screen and all the features necessary for Orthodox worship. In 1966 the Administrator of the Shrine asked the Orthodox to take responsibility for the care of the chapel. A missionary Brotherhood of St Seraphim was formed to establish a permanent presence in Walsingham. Its task was to include iconography, printing English texts of Orthodox services, missionary activity, and work with the poor and homeless.  From here, the Orthodox presence really took off .'

‘St. Seraphim’s story really begins in 1966 when Fr. Mark (later to become Fr. David) and Leon Liddament came to Walsingham as part of the newly formed Brotherhood of St. Seraphim. Their role at the time was to look after the little Orthodox Chapel that had been built in the Anglican Shrine; however, they soon felt that the local Orthodox needed a larger church. Looking around, the only buildings that were available at the time were the old prison and the old railway station. Finding the station a better option, they set about converting the building to its current form, which, as the building was being rented from the council, left it practically the same as the railway days with the addition of an onion dome and cross. While in the beginning they had planned to live and work in the rooms adjoining the chapel, events led to the establishment of a monastery in Dunton and a parish church in Great Walsingham, the Church of the Holy Transfiguration. However, St. Seraphim’s has remained a pilgrim chapel open to all who visit Walsingham since its establishment. St. Seraphim’s Trust was formed in 2005 and the building was finally purchased in 2008. Throughout its history, St. Seraphim’s has been a centre for the creation of Orthodox Icons with both Leon and Fr. David earning their livings as full time iconographers. While both have sadly passed away, Fr. David in 1993 and Leon in 2010, the Trust aims to build on their legacy and make St. Seraphim’s a space for the study and practice of iconography once again, reflecting the life and work of St Seraphim of Sarov through publications, literature and icons.

The next part of the project will involve informing people about the role of icons in Orthodox worship, private prayer and the traditional methods for their creation. As an important part of Walsingham’s history the station platform will be restored and the Chapel garden is being developed as a community garden. This will be a natural space to complement the spirituality of the Chapel and provide a calming and natural reflective space for use by pilgrims and the whole community locally.

Both iconographers used traditional methods of egg tempera painting and developed their own distinct styles. They drew their inspiration from both Greek and Russian sources, as well as Celtic ornamentation. This allowed them to develop an iconography which satisfied their own simple spirituality as well as those who bought their icons. The commitment of Leon Liddament and Father David  to painting Icons of local and British Saints is of particular importance, and their Icons can be found all over the world as well as the British Isles’.

‘The icon of our Lord in Glory, commissioned by St John the Divine Church, Kennington, London, is an example of a commission carried out by the Walsingham iconographers.’

‘The current icon screen (Iconostasis) in St Seraphim’s Chapel dates from 1975. On the right of the Royal Doors is the icon of Christ and on the left is the Mother of God. The Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are on the Royal Doors, below the Annunciation. The screen separates the altar, where the priest serves, from the people in the chapel.

At the top of the screen below the Cross is the last Supper. St Seraphim, Patron Saint of the Chapel, is on the right side of the screen and St Nicholas is on the left. In the centre of the ceiling under the dome is Christ Pantocrator, the Heavenly, looking down on he people. The icons of the Saints around the wall are venerated by the people.

The blessing prayer for an icon is: ‘O Lord God, You created man in Your image, but the Fall darkened its brilliance. By the incarnation of Your Christ become Man, You restored the image and thus re-established Your Saints in their first dignity. In venerating Your Saints we venerate Your image and likeness. Through them, we glorify You as their archetype’ (Praying with Icons, St Seraphim’s Trust & Norwich Cathedral, 2014).  

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Fr. Wealands Bell - Annunciation Ballad.

Sabbatical art pilgrimage: St Nicholas Paphos

Saint Nicholas Church in Kato Paphos was opened during August 2013 by the Bishop of Paphos. It has been described as being a ‘captivating new Church’ which is modelled on the churches of the Greek Islands with their blue domes and white walls.’ It has a piazza which ‘stretches down to sandy shores and the azure blue Mediterranean sea.’ Some of the best sunsets in Cyprus can be captured here. ‘Inside it is richly furnished, finished with beautiful hand painted icons, solid oak iconostasis, and furniture. The walls are white, and the floor marble inlay, and a cool and restful ambience is felt within’.

The interior of Orthodox churches, such as St Nicholas and others that I visited during my sabbatical art pilgrimage, with their iconostasis and many icons, has a history which stretches back to the Early Church:

'Icons constitute a part of Christian painting. They do not stand for its beginning for they were preceded by pictures of a different kind, concerned with symbols and with scenes of symbolic significance appearing in the catacombs and on the sarcophagi, as well as on small-scale works, and later - after the era of persecution - by extensive cycles of pictures, illustrating the scriptures and the lives and sufferings of individual martyrs ...

Where they were not used purely as decoration, they were intended for educational purposes; they were a kind of biblia pauperum, a Bible of the poor, representing a selection of important biblical events, made comprehensible through the language of pictures ...

As the belief in the active character of ... pictures increase ... Veneration of them grew at the same time as their power to perform ... miracles increased. Candles and incense were offered to them, and they were kissed, washed, anointed ...

in the year 726 ... the Byzantine Emperor Leo III began to attack icons, and a few years later to proceed with the whole authority of the state against all figurative religious art and those who venerated such things. This was the start of the age of Iconoclasm ...

The theological problem ... was decided in theory at the Seventh Ecumenical Council at Nicea in 747 ...

St John of Damascus ... though he did not live to see the Council ... prepared for the supporters of iconography the arguments with which they were to achieve victory at a later date. Of the nature of pictures he says: "A picture is a semblance, representing the original likeness in such a way that there still persists a difference between them." By saying this, he obviated any reproach that the veneration of pictures was idolatry. St John also quoted repeatedly a saying of Basil the Great, and used it to refute further the reproach: "The veneration shown to the icon devolves upon the prototype which it represents." The picture is, however, also a "semblance of something, a representation or copy, indicating the objects copied." Because of this resemblance the prototype is closely bound up in a spiritual sense with its representation, an association which Theodore the Studite circumscribed as follows:

“Just as to the seal belongs its impression, to each body its shadow, so to each prototype is its representation." According to Dionysius the Aeropagite the picture is merely a reflection of the invisible, but the contemplation of this visible reflection can raise us to a conception of the divine invisible’ (Heinz Skrobucha, Icons, Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh & London, 1963).

The history of the Church in Cyprus is even older than that of the icons found within it: 'The church of Paphos was founded by the Apostles Paul and Barnabas in A.D. 46. It was later organised by the Apostle Barnabas and St Heracledius.' Paphos was destroyed and rebuilt on more than one occasion as a result of earthquakes and conquests. As a result, the first figurative images to be preserved are 'figurative representations of the floors of the Paphos Basilicas at the end of the fourth century.'

At the 'end of the ninth century the church of St Paraskevi was built in Yeroskipou where wall-paintings of the tenth and eleventh century are preserved. During the twelfth century part of St Paraskevi church in Yeroskipou was repainted, while in 1183 St Neophytos the Recluse, who had lived in the cave of Encleistra since 1159, had the Encleistra painted.'  Theodore Apseudes was the artist who undertook this work for him, although the wonderful paintings which can be seen today at the Monastery of Agios Neophytos actually date from the time of St Neophytos' successor, Isaias.

'The icons in the Byzantine Museum in Paphos, dated from the end of the twelfth century to the beginning of the nineteenth century, indisputably express the religious faith of the Paphomions and enlighten us about the high artistic quality of times past.

The productivity of icon painting is evident from the great number of icons originating in the Paphos area' (Byzantine Museum, Holy See of Paphos, 1987).

Ten painters, including Theodore Apseudes, are known by name out of the many who have painted icons in the area up to the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Iconographer Aidan Hart has argued that ‘the characteristic feature of last century’s iconography, world-wide, is a shift from a somewhat decadent, sentimental style back to traditional models.’ Although there were scholarly and social influences helping to effect this revival, he suggests, the return to the actual painting of traditional icons was initiated by just a few iconographers.

He writes that, ‘The revival of traditional iconography in Greece is mainly attributable to Photius Kontoglou, who actively used his abilities as a painter, scholar and writer to promote the cause.’

In Russia Hart writes: "From the 1930’s, a secret nun named Sister Yuliania (Maria Nikolia Sakalova in the world) was secretly painting icons based on the recently restored medieval icons. Immediately after Stalin officially recognised the Church in 1944, St Sergius’ Lavra was re-established and with it a seminary and academy. Here Sister Juliania immediately began teaching iconography and restoration to seminarians and monks, and continued to do so until her death in the 1970’s. Hers was the first official academy of iconography in communist Russia and to her is primarily due the restoration in Russia of traditional iconography … More recently, Archimandrite Zenon has become among the most famous of Russian iconographers. His characteristic feature, at least since the latter 1980’s, has been the choice of inspiration from the Middle Byzantine Era (ninth to thirteenth centuries) rather than Russian models.’

Hart writes of Leonid Ouspensky and Fr. Gregory Kroug that few Orthodox "need an introduction to these two painters, particularly perhaps Ouspensky: "Leonid Ouspensky is known mainly through the many pupils whom he has tutored in Paris, and through his books "The Meaning of Icons", written jointly with Vladimir Lossky, and "The Theology of the Icon", now available in expanded form in two volumes … Among Ouspensky’s best known pupils is the American, Thomas Doolan, now the monk Father Simonas. In our own country [UK] another pupil, Mariamna Fortunatto, is known for her teaching the art of iconography … The other key figure for the Russian tradition in Europe is Fr. Gregory Krug, who lived also in Paris and often worked with Ouspensky.’

Juha Malmisalo, in Pursuit of the Genuine Christian Image, has written about the revival of icon in Lutheran churches, with a specific focus on the work and influence of ErlandForsberg: ‘Forsberg’s teacher, Uniat Father de Caluwé, is understood as the inheritor of a tradition carried on by the Old Belief Confessors Gavriíl Frolóv and Pimen Sofronov … the chain … through the Old Belief Confessors, the keepers of the original tradition ... proceeds to the Uniat Father and on to the Lutheran Erland Forsberg, to Kjellaug Nordsjö, and to Lars Gerdmar, who uses Forsberg’s name as a means of legitimization.’

In Great Britain Hart suggests that virtually all Orthodox iconographers have been working in the Russian tradition: ‘Mention could be made of Fr. David of Walsingham, perhaps known most for his icons of British saints, and his pupil, Leon Liddament. We have already mentioned Mariamna Fortunatto, whose teaching on the theology and the practice of icon-painting has been of great service over the past decades. Although I do not know her work personally, I understand that Matushka Patsy Fostiropolos is busy. The nuns of the Monastery of St John the Baptist in Essex have under the inspiration of Father Sophrony been producing for fifteen years portable icons, frescoes, mosaics, carvings, enamels and embroidery. And then there are numerous other iconographers in various stages of development painting as much as their family or work commitments allow ... Sergei Fyodorov, a pupil of Fr. Zenon, has become well known through his commissions for Anglican and Catholic cathedrals and abbeys.’

In 2007 the Wallspace gallery gathered together 15 contemporary, traditional iconographers who live and work in the UK for what was believed to be the first exhibition of its kind. Epiphany included works by some of the best current practitioners of traditional iconography, including: Matushka Patricia Fostiropoulos, Aidan Hart, Dr Guillem Ramos-Poqui, Dr Stéphane René, Silvia Dimitrova, Sister Petra Clare, Sister Nadejda (Owiny), Sister Esther (Pollak), and The Revd Regan O'Callaghan. Peter Murphy, whose work I saw at Tewkesbury Abbey, could also be added to this list.

In Cyprus itself, Stavrouvouni Monastery has been a centre of spirituality and worship in Cyprus over the last century with a long tradition in icon painting and frescoes. Its most famous icon painter monk is Father Kallinikos. 'The milestones in the life of Father Kallinikos include his apprenticeship to Ioannikios Mavropoulos, his three-year long imprisonment during the liberation struggle of EOKA from 1955 until 1959 and his apprenticeship to icon painter Fotis Kontoglou.' Father Kallinikos writes icons using the encaustic technique, or using egg tempera on wood, or using oil.

George Kepolas has brought the old tradition of Byzantine Mosaic Art back to life and with his brother Alkis, brought hagiography into the 21 century as well. Hagiography, literally the “writing of the saints” has a long history, and includes the painting of icons and of course Mosaic Art. In 1984 George Kepolas established, together with his brother Alkis and his associate Nicos Christodoulides, the Icon Painting and Mosaics Workshop.

Dionisiy Kouznetsov became 'a novice at the monastery at the St. Panteleimon Monastery on the Holy Mount  Athos in Moscow' before he was 'sent to the Monastery of St. Neophyte in Cyprus'. A 'local icon painter Charalambous, at Strumbi village' gave Dionisiy his first lessons in icon painting'. 'Later he met Nikita, another icon painter from Paphos'. 'Father Kallinikos from Stavrovouni Monastery has also taught him'. He painted many  icons and frescos in Cypriot churches. He has worked with Father Amvrosiy, the monk of St. Seraphim of Sarov monastery in Evrychou village. 'Initially Dionisiy combined the Russian technique with the Venetian or “anagenisi” of the 15 - 16th century. The painter is now changing his technique to the Byzantine one, which is close to the 12th century'.

George Goutsev was born in Bulgaria but works in Cyprus. He works 'under the influence of the magnificent mosaics of Ravenna (Italy), of Istanbul (Turkey), the icons in Bethlehem (Israel) and the murals and the icons from 16th century in the Monastery of Stavronikita, located in the Holy Mountain, Greece.' . Evangelia Psaltakis also creates beautiful icons in Cyprus. 

Hart concludes: ‘We can characterise twentieth century iconography first, by a return to traditional models in the Orthodox countries, and second, by the reintroduction of the icon tradition itself to the west. Though we might regret icons being bought and sold as art objects on the commercial market, at least this process, along with often secular scholarship, has brought the icon tradition and Orthodoxy in general much more into the western public consciousness. Icons have a life of themselves, independent of the reasons people might buy or sell them.

Thirdly, and I think this is what concerns us most, there was and is still, a growing feeling that in fact we might not have returned to the tradition as much as we thought we had. Having effectively lost the tradition, we are finding that it is not so easy to regain it in all its subtlety and profundity. We need to dig deeper still, to understand the icon’s timeless principles so that new icons can be more authentic, can go beyond the extremes of fearful copying and impatience “to do one’s own thing” before humbly imbibing the tradition.’

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John Tavener - Ikon Of The Nativity.