Our Orthodox worship is strong on beauty. We fill the walls and even the ceilings of our churches with icons, the stories and heroes of Christian history. We illuminate these images with candles and oil lamps, and the light shimmers from the glossy paint and gold backgrounds. Our clergy and altar servers wear vestments of different colours of brocade, highlighted with gold and embroidered.
People who visit an Orthodox service are immediately struck by the visual beauty, but that’s not the only sense affected. The whole service is sung and chanted, so the words of our prayers are framed with music. Incense rises from golden pots of incense. We taste the Eucharistic bread and wine, venerate icons, touch the hem of the priest’s vestment, and greet each other with a holy kiss. This is a very rich sensory experience, touching every one of the five senses.
