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Liturgical Beauty: Considering Iconography and Church Art

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Home Short Courses Bible & Sacred Texts Contemporary Spirituality Liturgical Beauty: Considering Iconography and Church Art

About the Liturgical Beauty: Considering Iconography and Church Art course

Since we are made in God’s image, an essential part of liturgy is its material beauty. This course aims to help clergy, theologians, church architects, artists and other church influencers understand the theological basis for liturgical art, its particularities, and how to commission it in an informed way.

Through three illustrated talks we will cover the Orthodox Church’s theology and approach to liturgical art, and how this can be applied to and enrich Anglican liturgical art. We shall discuss panel icons, wall painting and mosaic, church furnishing and lighting. Throughout, we will engage with participant queries.

Although its primary function is liturgical, the Orthodox Church’s visual iconography is often the fragrance that first attracts people and is thus a major contributor to Orthodoxy’s continued growth over the past decades. Iconography’s union of theology, mystery and beauty strikes a chord with people. We will explore how these same principles can be applied to Anglican sacred art.

The three talks are:
1) The Theology of Liturgical Art will consider the patristic basis of liturgical beauty, showing how worship is a microcosm of our divine role as prophets, priests and transfiguring artists of creation. We address such issues as the distinction between worship and veneration, and the role of the bodily senses in spiritual life.
2) The Transfigured Garment of Christ will look at how this theological vision affects the form of liturgical art. This radical vision of the world transfigured should be reflected not just in what is depicted but how it is depicted.
3) Commissioning Liturgical Art looks at principles and practicalities of commissioning church art, whether small or large scale.

About the Course leader
Aidan Hart has been a professional icon painter and carver for over thirty years. He is a member of the Orthodox Church, a popular speaker, and author of three books on iconography.

Most of Aidan’s time is spent fulfilling commissions for liturgical art, from Anglican and Catholic churches as well as from Orthodox. With works in more than 25 countries, he is experienced in a wide variety of mediums: egg tempera panel painting, fresco, mosaic, and stone and wood carving. He also acts as church design consultant.

Actively involved in training a new generation of liturgical artists, he has apprentices and is also founder and director of The Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Art’s three-year part-time icon painting certificate programme. He and his colleagues are currently involved in helping to establish a liturgical art centre in Chichester Cathedral. Aidan lectures widely and has published three books on iconography, most recently Festal Icons: History and Meaning.

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Details

Dates & Times

04 Oct 2022
Expired!
10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Category

Bible & Sacred Texts
Contemporary Spirituality

Course code

2680

What our students say

Netflix, Theology and Pastoral Practice

Peter Butchers on his MA in Theology, Imagination and Culture student experience

How do cultural tropes, like those found in Black Mirror, help bridge the gap between what academic theology espouses and what the everyday Christian believes? In his research as a student on the MA in Theology, Imagination and Culture, Peter Butchers explored platonic philosophy, digital theology and eschatology, and pastoral practice around death and dying.

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Rewarding Sabbatical Stay

The Revd Greg Syler, is Rector of Ascension & St. George’s, Resurrection Parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC USA, spent part of his ministry sabbatical at Sarum College in spring 2022.

His account of the experience begins: ‘I loved spending nearly three weeks of my ministry sabbatical at Sarum College earlier this year.

Not only did I rest, and rest well in the comfortable care of the Sarum College staff, I experienced very significant renewal and fresh insights.’

Read more

The Road Not Taken

Sarum Graduate Mike Truman

January 2022

Five years ago, I told my Warden of Readers that I would not be renewing my licence when it expired in 2019, as I thought my faith was becoming too unorthodox for a Church of England licensed lay minister. As someone who knew me well, she challenged me to actively explore what I did still believe. Thus started the journey that ended last August with the dissertation completing my MA in Theology Imagination and Culture (MATIC) at Sarum College.

Read more 

Clergy Study Breaks

The opportunity for clergy to get away occasionally from their own context, to have an overnight stay in the beautiful setting of Sarum College and all that the Salisbury Cathedral Close offers is hugely valuable. All the clergy I have suggested who have spent 24hrs at Sarum College have benefit greatly from the experienced mentoring where they can talk, reflect, think, plan and pray.

The support and encouragement they receive is excellent and has a positive on their on going ministry. This is something the Diocese of Rochester encourages and supports financially in preparation for their clergy preparing for Extended Ministerial Development Leave (Sabbatical).

— Canon Christopher Dench, Diocese of Rochester Director of Formation and Ministry

Retreats and Private Stays

When I arrived, exhausted and sensitive, I was grateful not to be asked by Reception were I came from, whether I had had a good journey etc. That was the kind of hospitality I needed: a non-intrusive welcome that was found in ancient cultures and still survives in some societies today, where the host asks questions about a stranger and his journey only when the visitor has rested and been given food and drink.

— guest on a private stay

Biblical Study Breaks

I just found it very refreshing – as a leader of a church I don’t get as many opportunities to step out and do courses (my fault, not the church!) and so I loved it. I think it was run really well online – which is a difficult medium to work with.

Pádraig Ó Tuama (pictured) was outstanding in his balance of getting us to engage and sharing his learning. Also the quick availability of resources provided by Sarum College Librarian Jayne Downey was excellent.

— course participant, Story Theology: Narrative Approaches to Scripture

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