Tell me about \'\'Monastery Icons\'\' icons

Well, the order of the letters in Christ\'s halo DO normally differ between Byzantine and Slavic iconography. The image that came up when I clicked on your link was too small for me to tell (maybe I\'m doing something wrong! Maybe I\'m getting too old!). If it\'s that kind of difference in the order of the letters, then it isn\'t a big deal, in and of itself. Personally, the particular images that you have seem to be fine as icons. The people that make them, however, seem to be in need of psychiatric medication. Not that my opinion means anything, but I would look at them as spiritually fine, acknowledging that God\'s grace can flow through sinful and fallen people, and even sometimes REALLY fallen people. It\'s like why we kiss a priest\'s hand. It has nothing to do with him as a priest. It has nothing to do with our estimation of his holiness. He could be a complete jerk, and even outright immoral, but so long as he hasn\'t yet been deposed, he is still a priest and we kiss his hand. We kiss his hand, because during the liturgy, his hands touch, and elevate, the Body of Christ. That\'s entirely it. The validity of the Mystery is not dependant on the sanctity of the celebrant. Therefore, I don\'t think the validity of an icon is dependant on the sanctity, sanity, or spiritual stability of the one who paints it. As long as it doesn\'t depict something errant! Yeah, check with your spiritual father about whether these icons/images have anything questionable in them. I\'m not an iconography expert. If they don\'t, and he\'s blessed them as icons, then I\'d be comfortable with using them. I just don\'t think I\'d be able to recommend them as a source of icons in the future though. They do sound like an exceptionally weird group.

Oh, look at that! The automatic filter has taken out one of my words in my previous post! It wasn\'t even a bad word! :) No, really! I just wanted to point out that I wasn\'t using bad language; the automatic profanity filter is just a bit zealous.

Thanks for the advice and pointers. Here\'s what I mean by the lettering Russian icon of Christ [image]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Ushakov_Nerukotvorniy.jpg[/image] Byzantine icon of Christ [url=http://www.iconsexplained.com/iec/lib/02256.htm]pic link[/url] My icon has the letters in the halo as follows: - O to the right - \\"lower case w-looking character\\" at the top -N to the left

For what it\'s worth I was told that the Monastery Icon is run by a group that claims to be members of the \\"Gnostic Orthodox Church\\". I don\'t have any confirmation on this so it is possible that it isn\'t true. Their catalog certainly seemed to have a large number of post schism Western saints so its possible they may actually be Uniates.

Well, I\'ve done a bit of googling, and it seems that \\"Gnostic Orthodox Church\\" was only ONE of the names that this group has gone by. Their current one apparently isn\'t even a Christian name - it\'s some sort of Ashram again. They\'ve bounced around a fair bit. But, as I said, subject to the direction of ones spiritual father, that doesn\'t mean we should go throwing out our icons. Just try to avoid buying anything from them in the future - that\'s a stewardship issue. If one has one of their icons, and as long as the individual icon is not portraying heretical doctrine, it should be okay. At least, that\'s what *I* think. If you have one of these and are concerned - check with your spiritual father!

I got an email reply from my spiritual father and I took said icons to him for examination this evening before the St Andrew of Crete Canon. He advised me there\'s nothing wrong with them, although the style wasn\'t quite \\"his cuppa\\", and that they could be \\"redeemed\\" by being used well :) Nevertheless I left them in his care to be blessed, this should remove any doubts and possible \\"evil influences\\" ..... if any.

If I were you, I would BURN any \\"image\\" you may have from this group of QUACKS and run as fast and far from their influence as you possibly can! This is a dangerous cult.

ReaderMichael, I\'ve reported myself to the moderators for being sarcastic in response to your comment. Please forgive me for being a mean, nasty and contrary person. Now you can see that one of the passions I am having to battle is anger, and I am also wrestling with a sarcastic tongue. Please pray for me! Everyone, please forgive me, and please pray for me! the unworthy and sinful monk, Cyprian

The icons are going to spend some time on the altar at my parish, which should have been done ( my bad ! ) regardless instead of \\"open package, inspect, place on icon stands\\". This will ensure removal of any and all \\"bad influence\\" .... or Karma if you wish :D