October 27, 2002

Orthodox icon of St. Gregorios.

One of the Americans teaching at the Arab-American University of Jenin joined us this morning as we went to worship. He came here out of a commitment to get to know Palestinian culture, particularly Palestinian-Christian culture, first-hand. He has been developing his own webpage, too (Zababdeh is thinking of passing a municipal law that foreigners who come here to live are required to make webpages).

We arrived late at St. George's Greek Orthodox church (1/2 hour into the service), but still managed to beat most of the crowd. This time of year, the olive harvest usually thins out the congregation a bit. As Marthame sat with him, he tried to explain what was happening during the service (Elizabeth was sitting across from them, on the women's side of the aisle, as the church maintains the custom of men and women sitting separately). Explaining the liturgy was both encouraging (for how much we've learned) and discouraging (for how much we have left to know). But to put a bright spin on it, the mystery still remains.

Marthame has been reading early Christian history books in anticipation of teaching next semester in Ibillin, and the issue of icons has jumped out at him. Prior to the Reformation, there were two major iconoclastic controversies. Citing the Second Commandment forbidding "graven images," many church leaders (and political) sought to cleanse churches of religious imagry. The two controversies were resolved in 787 (at the Second Council of Nicaea) and 843, and in both cases the decision in favor of iconography boiled down to the issue of incarnation: the material representation of heavenly figures affirmed that God became human - became material - in Christ. To forsake icons was to deny the possibility of incarnation. Incarnation to the Western Christian is not a hot topic, but here, where the majority Muslim population rejects the doctrine, it is still a live issue. A different framework altogether.