How did the people of the eastern orthodox church feel about icons?

Answer 1

Icons are venerated (honored) but not worshipped in the Orthodox Church. This is done by commemorating the memory of a saint, in the same way that the people of God in the Old Testament commemorated the righteous people who pleased God: "The memory of the righteous is blessed" (Proverbs 10:17).

St Luke the Apostle and Evangelist was the first person to paint icons (of the Virgin Mary and Christ) and some of these icons are still in existence to this day (on Mt Athos, Greece). This practice has continued in the Christian Church for over 2,000 years and is an essential part of Christianity, as confirmed by the Seventh Ecumenical Council and the Church Fathers.

By venerating icons we ask for the saints to pray to God for us, because we are told that God hears all prayers, but especially the prayers of his saints, as stated in Revelation 5:8 and in Revelation 8:3-4 "…the prayers of the saints, ascended before God…"

Answer 2

The Orthodox people venerate (honour) icons by commemorating the memory of a saint. In the same way, people in the Old Testament commemorated the righteous people who pleased God. "The memory of the righteous is blessed" (Proverbs 10:17).

St Luke the Apostle and Evangelist was the first person to paint icons (mainly of the Virgin Mary and Christ) and some of these original icons are still in existence to this day (on Mt Athos, Greece). This practice has continued in the Christian Church for over 2,000 years and is still an essential part of Christianity, as confirmed by the Seventh Ecumenical Council and the Church Fathers.

Answer 3

Icons are an important part of Orthodox worship. In prayer, the icon focuses your thoughts and keeps your mind from wandering ... a constant reminder.

They have been an integral part of Orthodox worship since the beginning of the Church at the time of Christ.

The 7th Ecumenical Council reinforced this with Cannon Law.

Answer 4

Walk into any Lutheran, Catholic, Evangelical or Mormon classroom, and you're likely to see an image of Jesus that looks realistic, very Northern European, in a pasture preaching. This is a lovely image, but it fails to accomplish what an Eastern Orthodox icon does: it tells the master stories of The Bible in a visual form. Iconography, or image writing, is another language, like French or Russian, that scripture may be translated into. Church missionaries can teach illiterate people of any language the truth of scripture with an image that contains all of the elements of one of the master stories of Christianity. The rubrics or rules of the Eastern Orthodox prohibit the depiction of anything that is not scriptural truth. For example, God the Father is bodiless, but Jesus Christ was born in the flesh, so the writing of his image witnesses to the fact of his incarnation.

In today's world it is easy to forget that the Church taught with icons for more than 1,500 years before the printing press came into common use. Hand-copied scripture was more expensive than most people's annual earnings, so few people owned a copy of the Bible. Icons could be copied onto a board, and painted with simple recipe of oil, egg yolk and ground stones of various colors. Virtually anyone could make a simple icon or image that reminded them of the scripture lesson or one of the stories from the Gospels. When icons were destroyed, it was a tragedy for Christians, because they were losing their only access to scripture. Once the printing press was invented, people had access to printed Bibles.

During the Reformation, Churches were emptied of their icons and they were destroyed. The images that told the master stories of Christianity, such as Pentecost, the Annunciation, and the Nativity continued to be shared through German cookie and bread stamps for another 150 years. The people found a way to continue to share the master stories of Christianity with their children and grandchildren.

Icons are prohibited from being written as Realism, an artistic form that is almost photographic. The Eastern Church instituted this rule or 'canon' because they were concerned that people might regard an icon as an object of worship, which is prohibited in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Other canons of the Church require that specific elements of a scriptural story be present to fully articulate scriptural truth. In the icon of The Incarnation, the angels, shepherds, magi, Mary, the infant Jesus, the manger, the swaddling clothes, the ox and the ass, the cave where the birth took place, Joseph, the devil tempting Joseph to put Mary away, and the star must be depicted in a manner to fully tell the story of Jesus' birth. Frequently, elements of Old Testament Prophecy, such as Isaiah's 'the ox and the ass shall know their master,' are included in an icon. New Testament elements are included in the same icon. In this way, the fullness of scriptural truth is depicted.

Some people think that the Eastern Orthodox worship icons, but this is prohibited. Worship belongs to God alone, according to the Eastern Orthodox. The image of an icon may be reverenced, greeted like an old friend, because we are so in awe of the story and God's love and compassion for His creation.