Icon Of Saint Dunstan

St Dunstan lived between 909 and 988 AD. He was born at Baltonsborough and grew up in Glastonbury where he became Abbot in 942. He reformed and developed the ancient monastery along Benedictine lines as a major spiritual, cultural and educational centre. He became Archbishop of Canterbury in 960 and on his death was acclaimed a saint.

This icon is written (all icons are written not painted as they tell a story) by a monk, Father Alypi, of the Pechersk Lavra - the Monastery of the Caves - in Kiev. Christianity first came to Kiev in 988 and the Pechersk Lavra soon became the most influential monastery in the Russian church. It was only restored to the church by the state in 1988 in time for the millennium of Christianity in Russia, which was also the millennium of St Dunstan's death.

St Dunstan lived and died before the division of the Church and this Icon is therefore a focus of united Christian devotion. It is also a symbol of reconciliation between east and west after the ending of the Cold War.

Icon Of The Holy Trinity

Copy of a XVth Century Russian Icon by Andrei Rublev. Written (painted) in Abbey House, Glastonbury, by John Coleman in 2004.

The origin of this Icon was written in 1422 AD for the Zagorsk Monastery, and is now in The Tretkov Russian National Gallery in Moscow. It has to be one of the most famous of religious images known to us as prints of it are found in almost every Cathedral or religious bookshop throughout the world.

It's more correct title is 'The Hospitality of Abraham and Sarah' as it depicts the story of the three visitors to Abraham and Sarah's tent (house) as recorded in Genesis Ch.18. A story that has been at the centre of the Church's complex doctrine of the Holy Trinity, 'Three in One and One in Three' from very early times. For in that story, although it clearly says there were 'three men' (v.2), it also refers to them in the singular 'and the Lord appeared' (v.1) and also Abraham addresses them as 'my Lord' (v.3). It is a doctrine that has taxed the ingenuity of countless preachers and theologians to explain countless equally perplexed congregations in countless Trinity Sunday sermons ever since.

Yet the genius of Andrei Rublev seems to have captured the essence of this mystery for all time in his beautiful and graceful Icon.

Click here for the full text of John Coleman's notes.

Metaphor

Written (painted) by Glastonbury artist Caroline Bacon BA (Hons) Fine Art

This mixed media artwork depicts a larger than life chalice-like vessel shimmering into the fore against a dark background. The image emerged out of the torn and beaten relics of earlier paintings and was not pre-planned. The vessel shape materialised off centre, imperfect, battered looking and yet somehow triumphant after its harsh passage into being: there is no slick finish here. The edges of the work are rough - there is no attempt to conceal the process by which this piece was made - for it is the process or journey which is the real subject of this picture. The observer is invited, challenged even, to contemplate their own journey in life to this point in time.

The chalice exudes a certain vigour - its cerulean blue and copper colours are bright, and the repeated scourings have not erased the joyful boldness in its surface. Its imperfections are essential to the vitality of this work. For me this painting is a shout, a command to get up, to move on, and an encouragement to live life to the full, inspite of - or perhaps because of - whatever has gone before.

Caroline Bacon