Iconoclasm and the Restoration of Icons
We can use the story of Iconoclasm to strengthen and enrich our own people’s understanding and appreciation of the icons, because it can help the people to be able to appreciate what the Church sacrificed and the toils and tribulation they went through to keep the icons and to preserve the Church from those that want to do the Church harm. Iconoclasm can also show how people never gave up on the Church and never turned their back on the battle to restore the Holy Images in the Church. Iconoclasm can help the non-Orthodox to open to understanding and appreciating icons where they will know how important icons are to the people of the Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church as whole.
Upon entering an Orthodox Church, a person will be amazed as to how many Icons are in the Church. The Iconostasis or Icon Screen is filled with many Icons, depending on how big the Iconostasis is. A person would see Icons of Jesus Christ, the Mother of God, the Archangels, the Patron Saint of the Church, the Twelve Feast Days, the Last Supper, Christ Enthroned and variety of other Saints. If the Church is like Saint Tikhon’s Monastery Church or Saints Peter and Paul Orthodox Church in Syracuse, New York or Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania a person will see Icons from wall to wall and on the ceiling, not an inch of space is without an Icon. On the tetrapod/analogion/small table, there is usually an Icon placed in the kiosk for the faithful to venerate, this Icon may be of patron saint(s) of the Church, the Icon of the Feast or of the Saint commemorated on that day.
When a Miracle Working Icon or a Myrrh-Streaming Icon has been to different churches, monasteries and communities, there have been many people that have come from different areas to come venerate the icon and say a personal prayer to the icon. In Taylor, Pennsylvania at the Carpatho Church, a Weeping Icon is present in the Church and on every Wednesday there is parakelis to the Theotokos in the evening and at every service the Church is filled to capacity. I watched a video on YouTube, where the Hawaiian Icon of the Mother of God was at Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church in Olyphant, and it showed people coming up to venerate the Icon. The people venerating the Icon of the Mother of God were not just Orthodox, but were people of other faiths. The same for the Pilgrimage for the two years, when I have been serving with Bishop MICHAEL at the healing service on Memorial Day, I had the privilege and blessing to be able to guard the Icon after people were anointed and when the people came up to the Icon, some Venerated Her and others of different faiths came up and just stood before Our Lady and said their own personal prayer.