Picture Perfect


There can't be many houses in the parish in which there are no photographs, and often they are on display. Photographs or paintings of people are one of the ways we express a personal and valued relationship. Faith, which is a personal relationship with God, also finds expression in visual forms. In Church naturally we expect to see pictures of Christ and of the saints. But up to now a notable absence from St Bartholomew's Church has been a picture of St Bartholomew, who was one of Jesus' first catch of disciples.

Thanks to an anonymous donation we have been able to put that right. As you walk into church through the main door, there in front of you on the pillar you'll see an icon of St Bartholomew the Apostle. It is the generous gift of a church family and was painted especially for us by an Eastern Orthodox monk, Brother Apostolos of Katerena Monastery on Mount Athos, Greece in November last year.

Those of you who have been inside an Orthodox church, perhaps when on holiday in Greece, Cyprus or Russia, will be familiar with the way icons decorate their churches. In an Orthodox church you would hardly see the walls, which are covered with them - there is Jesus, his blessed mother, and all his friends, the saints and martyrs, the heroes of the Church. It's as though we were with them, surrounded by them, in their presence as we enter a church. Well this is exactly the point. Worshippers are reminded that they are citizens of heaven whilst pilgrims on earth. As we worship we do so with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, who cheer us on our way.

At St Bart's behind the candle stand we have an Orthodox icon of Jesus being shown to us by Mary - for as we pray there, we face Jesus the light of the world. The new icon of Bartholomew will be the first thing you see as you enter the church - a reminder of our calling, like his, to follow Christ.

Discipleship is a calling to a disciplined life and in Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday (9th February) we are once again invited to renew disciplines that are given to us in order to grow in faith. During a series of talks called "Back to Basics" on Sunday evenings at 6.30pm after Evensong at 6pm I shall be looking at intercession, confession, fasting and almsgiving. The aim of these disciplines is to help us become better disciples in the school of Christ.

St Paul writes about Jesus: "He is the image (in Greek, ikon) of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation" (Colossians 1.15.) We too were made in God's image, but the image has been damaged and the likeness lost through sin. As we pass Bartholomew on our way into church, so we pass one called as we are, yet already victorious and one with Christ. How good to have him cheering us on, and how good to greet him as we enter our church.

Text from The Vicar's Letter, February 2005
Photograph by Sue Ramsden