St Basil’s Images & a Crazed Image of Basil

St Basil’s Images & a Crazed Image of Basil March 4, 2011

Yesterday’s regular meeting of the Orthodox Clergy Association of Southeast Texas was hosted by St Basil the Great Greek Orthodox Church.

The following images were captured with my cell phone – click to enlarge.


St Basil’s, having just completed a huge building project, is now in the icon installation phase. Cut-out images, ready for install, were laid out on the tiled floors throughout the temple.


Fr Anastasios Raptis, parish priest of St Basil’s, is pictured above (to your left) showing Fr Anthony Baba, of St Anthony – Spring, the temple. (Fr Anthony and the faithful of St Anthony Church hope to move into their new church building on Palm Sunday.)


Those huge windows afforded a curious image of shade and light upon the new icons.


This year’s Pan-Orthodox Vespers for the Triumph of Orthodoxy (which celebrates the 8th century restoration of the holy icons) will be held at St Basil Church with Fr Thomas Hopko as the guest preacher.


The service begins at 5:00PM — with a reception to follow. Join us!


This image of the Annunciation — with the peculiar shading and depth dimensions common to iconography AND the anticipated completion of scene omitted by my cell phone camera — plays tricks on the eyes. If you look to the upper right corner the photo image does not look square!


Someday, this great dome will include the image of Christ the Righteous Judge.


The iconostasis — and, to the left, the iconographer and crew.


What one has most to work and struggle for in painting is to do the work with a great amount of labour and sweat in such a way that it may afterward appear, however much it was laboured upon, to have been done almost quickly and almost without any labour, and very easily, although it was not.” (Michelangelo) Quote Source


At first glance, this image seems to have no place here, or anywhere for that matter! But it is a guy named Basil wearing a shirt that says Greece. (I’ll make sure he’s installed in church, too, so to speak … presenting a different image.)

Sunday of Orthodoxy Vespers
March 13, 2011
5:00PM; reception to follow

Saint Basil the Great
Greek Orthodox Church
1100 Eldridge Parkway
Houston, TX 77077

Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko, preacher


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