Cloud of Witnesses Radio

Icons as Portals: Discovering Spiritual Connection and Transformation in Iconography | TIO012 CWP092

Cloud of Witnesses cast and crew Episode 92

This episode explores the theme of connection amid growing isolation in modern society, focusing on Mike and Laurie’s journey through art and faith. Their experiences highlight the transformative power of icons that promote a deeper understanding of community and communion.

• Examining the paradox of modern isolation despite technological connectivity 
• Discussing the fears and helplessness that have intensified over time 
• Reflecting on the lasting impacts of the COVID pandemic on social interactions 
• Sharing personal stories of travel and exploration of sacred spaces 
• Analyzing the significance of stained glass and icons in Christian art 
• Revisiting a serendipitous discovery of icons in an antique shop 
• Exploring the transformative and spiritual dimensions of collecting icons 
• Highlighting the connection to a broader spiritual community 
• Understanding how icons serve as reminders of belonging and faith 
• Encouraging listeners to seek connections through faith and beauty

Thank you for journeying w/ the Saints with us!

Speaker 1:

Though this may sound paradoxical, we are at once a connected and yet disconnected people. Our friends, family and loved ones are as close as the cell phone in our hands, and yet we've never felt more isolated. Depression has never been more common, suicide is at an all-time high, and the dependence on prescription drugs and alcohol continues to skyrocket. In the midst of this lonely world, some find a salve for the pain.

Speaker 3:

Here are two named Mike and Laurie fear than when I was young. Today, everything is captured, everybody's got a camera, the internet spreads the images and nothing happens that isn't caught and shared, which builds on the sense of fear and helplessness. Fear and helplessness Today, the news never stops. There's a sense that you are responsible if you don't act, if you don't respond, send money, tweet or whatever, and that was not the case when we were younger. It's even harder today to get those thoughts out of one's mind.

Speaker 2:

We've talked about COVID, where that three years ago, four years ago, totally changed our world and I think it hasn't bounced back yet. You still see people who are fearful of being with others. We have neighbors who obviously don't even come out of their house anymore and we haven't seen them in years. You can see that the door is open, but you never see a person.

Speaker 1:

Mike and Lori have and continue to live a full life, both educated, avid readers, world travelers and, for a long time, living in England, where they enjoyed visiting the grand churches and cathedrals.

Speaker 3:

We had been very involved in a local Presbyterian church. Lori and I had a youth group coming meeting at our home on a weekly basis and also we took turns teaching an adult class on different subjects. My company was acquired by a larger outfit based in the UK and I was asked to go over and work for one of those divisions for a year. So we rented our house, we moved over there and so we had more time for traveling around. So we hunted around and we also had a great time traveling. We went to France, we went to Italy, we spent time exploring cathedrals, little tiny country churches.

Speaker 1:

Christian Images. Beautiful Christian Artwork. From the stained glass of cathedrals to the iconography seen across Europe, Mike and Laurie found that they always gravitated towards the transcendent, towards the beauty exuding from Christianity.

Speaker 2:

Well, part of it is my interest in history and having my family background being British. There's a tie there and a yearning to kind of know more.

Speaker 3:

I was most interested artistically in stained glass. At that time, when we first came back to San Diego after our year in England, I was asked to teach a church adult school class and they wanted it to be different, reflecting our experiences that we had had while we were gone. This class was I called it Around the Word and I said I want to cover all the ways that the gospel is communicated historically and today, besides the Bible. So I think that was one of the most pivotal moments and I never really bought the idea that peasants are all completely illiterate and if they just looked up and saw Jesus on the glass it would substitute for the Bible. I don't really buy that, but there may be some truth to it.

Speaker 1:

Though they may not have known it at the time, the door to the path leading them towards their own answers was just opening. Maybe not the first time this has been said, but a treasure was found one day at an antique shop in Seattle Washington. Only, the treasure found was not for sale, not yet.

Speaker 3:

We made a trip up to Seattle to visit family and while there we're walking around and I noticed this big cabinet behind me in the window of an antique shop for my office. So I went inside and the walls were lined with icons and that was a surprise. But I inquired at the front desk, you know, are any of these for sale? And the owner was like like no, these are my collection, I just don't have room at home. Essentially, what happened was a few months later my sister called me and said I was said that she was driving by that shop and she saw that they were going out of business. She stopped to talk to the owner and he said I'm going to sell these icons.

Speaker 2:

So yes, we were fascinated by all these icons around the walls and had not really noticed. In our I guess in all of our travels we didn't have any occasion to go into an Orthodox church where we would have seen icons. We may have, but it didn't really ring a bell. But when we walked into this antique shop and saw all of them it was quite fascinating.

Speaker 1:

Mike remembers fondly one icon in particular that perhaps changed the course of their lives.

Speaker 3:

I was a longtime fan of CS Lewis and as I considered icons, I thought about the story in Lewis's Voyage of the Dawn Treader, part of the Narnia series, where the children are back in the regular world and they're in a house and they notice a picture on the wall and the picture had a ship tossed on the waves, a big storm going on, and one of them thought, gosh, I can hear the sails and the masts creaking, and is that salt air? And they get close to the picture and all three are looking and they fall into the picture and end up in Narnia and I felt that icons were like that picture on the wall. I would end up on the voyage of the Dawn Treader if I'd been in that room and maybe the icons would be a window for me to get further in and higher up and farther into the kingdom For Mike and Laurie.

Speaker 1:

They are not mere collectors, or even mere admirers. Rather, they're participants in the reality that surrounds us all.

Speaker 3:

As we began to collect icons, more traditional paintings and things we had on our walls were displaced and I had to add an extra mantelpiece to hold more icons. But we discovered that they weren't passive observers on the wall. But we discovered that they weren't passive observers on the wall. They reminded me of a tract that I saw many years ago called my Heart Christ's Home.

Speaker 1:

My Heart, christ's Home. Christ can be thought of as looking around your house. He sees the dust, he sees the magazines you are hiding. There's a danger that when you bring these icons into your house, they don't just sit there on the mantelpiece. The icons come in and change you. You have to be prepared to be changed. People expect to change themselves the way they want to, but it's not a one-way street. You don't just bring the icons and put them up. They aren't passive, they're transformative. Mike and Laurie have discovered and embraced the spiritual world around them, the world of God's presence in and through His saints. They know and have tangible reminders that they are not alone, they are not isolated, and this connection, this communion, is available to any and all. Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us you.