Icons - sacred images painted by people hundreds of years ago are finding new life.  In our sacred space here at the Abbey a great cloud of witness is gathered around the room in the form of the Iconographic work of Deborah Anderson.  We recently invited Deborah to share her work and passion with us and what a treat it was!

Mrs. Anderson shared a few thoughts Saturday and Sunday that stuck with me and forever changed how I view this ancient form of scriptural communication - here they are in bullet form (sorry, no major creativity here - just good chunks of meat!)

• Icons are written, not painted - though the writing involves paint, the Icons themselves are physical representations of the scriptural stories and communicate eternal truth in the same way that scripture does.
• Just as you would not know the people in my family photo albums, Icons mean little to people until they get to know the stories attached to the icons themselves.  
• Icons are not "graven images" or "idols" they are aids to prayer, drawing us into God's story and always pointing to Jesus.
• Icons are not "bad art" - but their perspective is different (rather than looking to a finite point, we are looking into eternity) and they tell stories all at once.  This is intentional, to keep the story the focus and God the perspective - it literally keeps us in the here and now.
• Praying with Icons can be a wonderful experience and I encourage you to try it today.  The icons here are available for prayer Monday, Wednesday and Fridays every week until the display is returned to Deborah Anderson sometime in December.  Come and experience God in a whole new way.