Images that lift the soul

They are “windows into heaven” – glimpses into a spiritual realm that inspire the heart and lift the soul.

Icons – sacred images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and the saints – are essential to worship and prayer in the Orthodox Christian Church, said the Rev. Michael Shanbour, pastor of Christ the Savior Antiochian Orthodox Church.

So it was with joy and gratitude Friday that Shanbour watched the installation of several large icon prints inside this new church in the Spokane Valley. The mounting of these canvas images marked the culmination of many months of hard work and the efforts of dozens of families who prayed for their own place to worship.

“Without icons, there’s not that visible and emotional connection between my heart and my prayer,” said Shanbour, who moved from Kansas last summer to become the church’s spiritual leader. “For me, they evoke a sense that this is my family, my history, this is a part of who I am. … This is my Lord who became flesh for me.”

The installation of the icon prints happened just in time for Lent, which starts Monday for Eastern Orthodox churches worldwide. While Western churches use the Gregorian calendar, those in the Eastern Orthodox tradition maintain the older Julian calendar.

The images also will coincide with the celebration of the Sunday or Orthodoxy on March 20, which marks the restoration of the icons in the eighth century. Before that time, there was much controversy within the church over the use of icons in worship. The Seventh Ecumenical Council of 787 brought an end to the iconoclasm.

On Friday, Shanbour prayed, lighted devotional candles and watched in anticipation as workers adorned the white walls with icon prints of Jesus, St. Ignatius of Antioch and other saints.

Orthodox Christians do not worship these flat, brilliantly colored two-dimensional images. Instead, they are venerated, Shanbour explained. It’s akin to a soldier in Iraq pulling out a photo of his wife from his wallet and kissing the picture. “Having the picture makes the person present in a spiritual way,” he said. “It’s not love toward Kodak paper.”

Traditional icons are painted from ancient ones in the same way that church manuscripts were once painstakingly copied by hand from an original, according to several Web sites. The icons at Christ the Savior, however, are photographic prints on canvas. Some are the size of a piece of paper. Others are larger than life. “More Spacious than the Heavens,” an image of Mary and the child Jesus standing before her, both with their arms stretched out toward heaven, is 12 feet wide.

Icons depict the church’s doctrinal beliefs, explained Nilus Graham, a church member who helped design the worship space. “More Spacious than the Heavens” places Jesus at the center of Mary’s body, he said, at her womb, to show how she gave birth to the Son of God, who also became man.

“We’ve been incredibly blessed,” said Graham, who converted from Catholicism to Eastern Orthodoxy 28 years ago, even though he was raised as a Southern Baptist. “This is a very exciting time for all of us.”

Graham and dozens of others used to attend services at St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church in Post Falls. After spending many years driving to North Idaho to participate in the liturgy, families in Spokane decided they needed their own church.

Last April, the congregation of about 90 people bought an old church building on the corner of 16th and Pines. Four months later, Shanbour moved to Spokane from Topeka, Kan., in August to serve as their pastor.

Now, membership at Christ the Savior has grown to about 100. The old church steeple is gone, replaced with a cupola topped with the Eastern Orthodox cross. Inside, a massive makeover has turned an old building into an elaborate worship space with dark floors made of Brazilian cherry wood, sweeping arches and an ornate altar beyond the iconostasis, the icon-decorated partition that separates the sanctuary from the rest of the church.

The $100,000 renovation was paid for by church members and other supporters, some of whom attend St. John the Baptist in Post Falls, Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Spokane or Shanbour’s home parish of St. George Cathedral in Wichita, Kan.

Building this church has been a labor of love, said Greg Arger, president of the parish council. “This signifies birth,” he said. “It’s a way to share our faith with others.”

For more information about Christ the Savior Antiochian Orthodox Church, call (509) 891-7632.