Proper church dcor is necessary for proper worship. Anyone who witnesses an Orthodox liturgy for the first time will be struck by its appeal to the senses. The central actions of the Liturgy are the consecration and distribution of the bread and wine that make up the Lord's Body and Blood, but the images everywhere around are not mere embellishments. Holy icons are an essential aspect of the whole liturgical event. They enhance the beauty of a church. They instruct us in matters pertaining to the Christian faith. They remind us of this faith. They lift us up to the models that they symbolize. They provoke us to imitate the virtues of the holy figures depicted on them. They help to transform and bless us. They serve as a means of worship and veneration (Cavarnos 30).The most obvious function of icons is to enhance the beauty of the church. The church is a house of God, which means that it should be decorated as beautiful as possible. The interior should be especially striking because it is where faithful worshipers gather. The pleasure evoked from the icons must be a holy and spiritual experience.Icons serve to instruct the faithful. The workings of the Lord should be represented through icons because all people are not literate. Sometimes icons are more vivid than written accounts. Icons can present many things simultaneously and concisely. It could take a long period of time to describe the same event in words.We often forget things that are extremely important to us. We may know many things about the Christian faith, but we often forget them because we become preoccupied with everyday worldly matters. Icons remind and awaken us to our Christian faith. We also remember pictures better than we do words.Icons lift us up to the models that they represent. They lift us up to a higher level of thought and consciousness. The people shown in the icons were at a higher level than we are in our everyday lives. When we s...
