A lifelong Episcopalian, Teresa Harrison has been writing icons for 13 years, and often leads workshops at churches and retreat centers throughout the country. Her training was with iconographer Phillip Zimmerman at workshops in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast. She is a member of St. John’s Cathedral, Jacksonville, Fla., where her husband is dean. The following are her responses to questions from The Living Church.

Tell us about the general interest in icons among Episcopalians.

I have been overwhelmed by the overall interest in knowing about icons — by members of my cathedral and by Episcopalians I see as I travel around the country. I have been even more surprised by how many people are willing to take the time to enter into a five-day retreat to write an icon. The contemplative experience is a most satisfying immersion into the meaning and beauty of icons.

Icons have been described as “windows to heaven.” Can you explain the theology behind this description?

Icons bring us face to face with Christ, his mother, his friends the saints and angels — in short, with the heavenly kingdom. When we pray before an icon, we enter into communion with the holy person(s) depicted. The icon makes them present to us and us to them. The saints pass through the “window” of an icon to meet us, and vice versa. God became incarnate so that we might know God. Just as the incarnation illuminates a transfigured humanity, icons too seek to portray that new humanity.

The icon attempts to point us to the divine reality in pictorial form much as the Bible does in written form. It is a window into the divine relationship with God and the story of our faith. A devout friend of mine, in her 90s, speaks of the people in the Bible as if they are alive and with her now — she has a living faith. The mystery of this art form calls us to that living faith.

Linette Martin in Sacred Doorways explains, “The aim is to communicate the impinging of the divine world upon the human one: to depict persons already in the process of deification or transfiguration, and history as the sphere of divine intervention. The icon reflects the life, historical experience, and belief system of Eastern Christianity in all its complexity and depth; as an integral part of that life, it aspires to offer a ‘window,’ a vision (however imperfect) of a transfigured world and humanity, which points forward to the final revelation of glory in the Age to Come.”

How does writing an icon differ from reverently painting another type of religious artwork?

Religious artwork is the artist’s own creative interpretation of an event or story, and this may take any form. As with icons, it is surely inspired by God and very moving to the viewer and may evoke prayer. However, writing an icon follows a discipline developed, primarily over the Byzantine period, by the Eastern Orthodox Church. It has a highly stylized “language,” for example wide open eyes = seeing/knowing/awareness, small closed mouth = true contemplation demands silence, highlighted forehead = the mind of Christ, thick neck = Ruach or breath of God. The iconographer, offering his/her vocational work to the church for the glory of God, rarely signs the icon. There is little emphasis on the creativity or identity of the individual artist. The icon is made to be used in the home for prayer and in the church as part of the liturgy and structure (iconostasis: a wall of icons dividing the nave from the sanctuary). From its very nature, the art of the icon is a liturgical art: The mystery which is celebrated in the liturgy is the same mystery depicted in the icon.

For someone who has never taken part in an icon-writing workshop but would like to try it, what can he or she do to prepare him/herself?

There is no need to know how to paint. Icon writing is about praying every brush stroke and allowing God to lead you. Therefore the best preparation would be to pray — to become an empty vessel open to God’s will. Your teacher will guide you in a detailed process of layering thin washes of paint which move from dark to light, mirroring our journey in faith. Pray to be open to an indescribable joy — that is what happens when God is working in us.

What are some ways that icons can be used as part of one’s personal prayer life at home, or in a parish’s prayer life?

We want to approach the icon quietly, reverently and with a still mind. Listen with the heart; a deeper part of ourselves that is reached when thinking ceases, understanding that we are known fully, loved fully and needed fully by our God. As we gaze at the icon we come to understand more of who God is calling us to be, more about our true selves, and we deepen our relationship with Christ and those saints who are the great witnesses of our faith.

Are there books that you would recommend as being particularly helpful in the appreciation of icons and using them as part of a meditative practice?

In my comments I have drawn from the sources listed below. As an Episcopalian, I especially invite readers to enjoy the two small, beautiful books on icons written by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams.

Icon Reading List

Praying With Icons. By Jim Forest. Orbis Books, 1997. A rich volume of essays on many aspects of icons, well illustrated.

Sacred Doorways: A Beginner’s Guide to Icons. By Martin Linette. Paraclete Press, Brewster, MA, 2002. This unique book combines a deep reverence for icons with an artist’s understanding of their physicality and the process of their material birth.

Behold the Beauty of the Lord. By Henri J.M. Nouwen. Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, IN, 1987. This devotional classic offers in-depth meditations on four significant icons.

The Meaning of Icons. By Leonid Ouspensky and Vladimir Lossky. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Crestwood, NY, 1999. A beautiful edition of the 1952 classic, a large-format book with a text that is both scholarly and profound.

Ponder These Things: Praying with Icons of the Virgin. By Rowan Williams. Sheed & Ward, Franklin, WI, 2002. A small, rich book inviting us to explore and reflect on the depths of meaning in three classic icons of the Virgin and her Child.

The Dwelling of the Light: Praying with Icons of Christ. By Rowan Williams. Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge, U.K., 2004/2003. Drawing on this rich source of devotional theology, the Archbishop of Canterbury shows us how to understand four classical icons: the Transfiguration, the Resurrection, Christ as one of the eternal Trinity, Christ as judge of the world and ruler of all.

The Open Door: Entering the Sanctuary of Icons and Prayer. By Frederica Mathewes-Green. This book is a call to stand still, take a deep breath and face the cloud of witnesses.

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