The Icons at Home Project affirms the home as the centre of family worship in our day-to-day lives. Through the iconographic artwork of Symeon and his studio, it invites us to a life informed by the faith, hope and love of Jesus the Christ, Mary the Theotokos, and all his saints by placing liturgical images in our homes and thus inviting their presence into every corner of our family’s lives.
A Vision of Christian Life in the Home
If good churches are oriented toward the worship of God, families blessed by participation in that worship should witness the life inspired by that perspective in their homes. Unlike a church, where the orientation is the worship of God, a home is about our life in Christ, revealed in the daily aspects of everyday life. In our homes we cook, eat, wash, read, and sleep—and such mundane tasks have been a path to deification for many saints. In considering such holy persons and praying with them, even the most everyday activities can be blessed.
Home is also where we ideally experience the roles by which God has made himself known—that of father, mother, child, brother and sister, and even husband and wife. The different forms of love expressed and experienced through our family relationships ranging from the profound comfort embodied between siblings to God’s mysterious love for each of us, exemplified in the passion between husband and wife. In the home, a kiss on the cheek, the forehead, or the lips, can find an echo of its everlasting fulfilment in an icon.
Lastly, our homes are the buildings where we consider our daily actions through the perspective of eternity and our participation in the Kingdom of God. Each window and doorway, as well as those places in which we hang our coats and store our work tools, can inspire us to witness Jesus Christ in everything we do. There is an opportunity for our home to be a repository of saintly examples of the deliberate duty our faith requires and the hope we have of experiencing God and his angels in the unexpected.
Home Spaces
Entrance
Prayer corner
Living room
Dining room
Kitchen
Study
Parent’s bedroom
Children’s bedroom
Mudroom
Garage
Workshop
Details
My family and I recently moved to the Canadian province of Alberta and into a small home outside the city of Red Deer. The original house was built in 1904 and has undergone many changes and renovations since its construction. Currently, it finds itself in a state of some disrepair, being beside the railway in an industrial area of town.
Being uprooted from the village of Conestoga, where all the children were born and in a place that gave so much to the studio’s formation has presented some challenges. However, over the past six months, we’ve watched each challenge become an opportunity and a blessing to us. Now, as the studio finally settles into its new digs, the grace to resurrect the Icons at Home project has presented itself as work begins to make our new house our home.
The icons and articles that come out of this project are specific to that work. Each seeks to embody the burgeoning idea that our homes have a unique opportunity to create a holy space—like a church but distinct in its vision—in which our daily lives are inspired by the saints, encouraged in performing our duties, and expectant of meeting God.