‘Windows to heaven’
Greek iconographers create images for Mt. Lebanon church
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church in Mt. Lebanon has undergone a transformation.
Greek iconographers came to the church at 123 Gilkeson Road earlier this summer and added 40 icons to the interior design.
Icons in a Greek Orthodox Church are not considered mere decorations, but sacred images – a “writing” of holy persons and events that serve as “windows to heaven” to aid prayer, worship and contemplation of the divine.
“For the last eight years, we’ve been working with these iconographers from Thessalonica,” explained the Rev. Michael Kallaur, the church’s pastor for the last 13 years. “We had certain icons that were here. We wanted the iconographers to match (what we had). We didn’t want them to be in a completely different style. If you look at the before and after, they go together. It looks like this could have been here from the very beginning. It was quite an undertaking.”
Two brothers, Panagioti and Dimitri Christodoulou, came to Holy Cross at the request of Gerontissa (Abbess) Olympiada of Holy Protection Monastery of White Haven, where the brothers were working on an iconography project at the time.
After eight years of proposals, meetings with the iconography committee and two more visits from the Christodoulou brothers, a consensus was reached and the project was given the green light.
Not involved in the work of the iconographers was the church’s dome, which was added in 1977, and is now considered a prominent South Hills landmark.
“We didn’t touch the dome,” Kallaur said. “(The icons) were already there.”
Scaffolding took over the church from the altar to the back of the choir loft while the iconographers worked in July.
“The entire church was under scaffolding,” Kallaur said. “All of the icons are on canvas. They were painted in Greece and they shipped over 30, eight-foot tubes. Over the last year, they have been shipping these various icons to us. When they came in July, it was kind of like wallpaper. They did add some painting and different things around them so it blends in with the material.”
While the work took place, church services were held at the community center.
The project carried a price tag of more than $1 million. Fundraisers were held to help offset the cost.
Nina Paliouras, a pharmacy student at Duquesne University who grew up at the church, was the youngest member of the iconography committee. She addressed the project in the church’s Holy Cross Crossroads publication.
“Now, the future generations can look up and witness the beauty of the faith and the unwaning light of Christ and the Resurrection written on the walls,” she wrote. “Icons are not paintings; they are windows to Heaven, showing to us the Life beyond this world that we are all journeying towards since the day we were baptized. Icons bring light and help us during prayer as a reminder that all the saints are alive, the angels are standing with us, and Christ and Panagia are in our midst. We are witnessing the Heavenly Kingdom before our eyes and celebrating the mysteries together.”
The history of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church dates to the 1950s with beginnings as a small community center for immigrant Greeks.
“It began in somebody’s home, then it went to a Lutheran church in Mt. Lebanon,” Kallaur explained. “The community grew significantly from about 90 to over 200 families. From 1954 to 1964 they were in downtown Mt. Lebanon, then they bought the property on the hill.”
“The Church on the Hill,” as it is known, was blessed Sept. 14, 1969, during a Divine Liturgy at the site where the church sits today.
Today, the church has a robust parish community of more than 500 families. Weekly services take place at 9:30 a.m. Sundays.
And it’s a church that now sports a brand new look.
“It really comes together quite nicely,” Kallaur said. “It’s a labor of love because of all of the particulars and all of the intricacies that go along with something like this. It’s a huge blessing. You walk in and you’re mesmerized. This is truly magnificent work. We’re just so pleased. People are just overwhelmed. … It’s quite stunning. When you first see it, it really moves you deeply. It changes the whole look of the church.”