I’m delighted to tell you about an upcoming art exhibit at our church. “The Passion of Christ in Times of Adversity” won’t just hang on our walls. It will adorn our worship space during holy week. “Art for art’s sake” has its place, but this is art for worship’s sake.
Its curator, Dr. Olga Sobkovych, and one of its artistic contributors, Olha Tkachenko, have been worshiping at our church for a year or so. As you might have guessed from their names, both are Ukrainian, and both have remarkable stories of their journeys to Canada. Neither has forgotten their homeland. The Olgas (as I like to call them) have noticed the similarity between artists who worked under oppression from Nazi Germany and artists working in contemporary Ukraine. And they want to share that overlap with us, their new church.
Dr. Sobkovych has previously displayed this artwork in Germany, where she lived en route to Canada. Our worship space is ideal for it, since the art centers on the themes of Jesus’ passion and death. It may feel a little like the Stations of the Cross tradition in which our Catholic siblings engage, but it is not quite that. The Stations are designed to help us ponder 15 steps on Jesus’ Via dolorosa, whereas these works aren’t so narrowly focused on those moments in the passion.
Ukraine is the traditional heartland of Orthodox Christianity in eastern Europe. Kiev was the city in which Orthodoxy was first adopted before spreading east to Russia. In Orthodox Christianity, icon writing (not painting) really matters. Icons are depictions of Christ or the saints, often with gold background, showing them in postures of prayer or devotion. These are meant as aids to the viewer’s own devotion. Orthodox believers kiss icons, they raise incense in front of them, they use them as aids to prayer and union with God, not unlike sacraments. Ukrainian art is often influenced by iconography, and this exhibit will be too.
The exhibit will use a variety of media. Some smaller prints will hang from the open wall between our sanctuary and the West Chapel, as you can see in the images. Some larger images will hang from our balconies, both side and rear. Some will be projected on blank walls, not unlike our regular use of screens. At TEMC we’re used to being surrounded by rich visual imagery in our stained-glass windows. For this brief season we’ll be surrounded by even more rich imagery from Ukrainian and German artists. It will enhance our worship, deepen our prayer, and remind us of our solidarity with Ukrainians who, after four years of war, are still resilient. This is the age-old conflict between good and evil. The world and Ukrainians want the righteousness to overcome the evil. They want victory and justice without which peace cannot be achieved.
We will have an opening reception to celebrate the art on March 22 at 1:30pm. The Olgas will lead tours opening up their vantage on the work between the conclusion of our 11am service that day until the reception at 2pm. That late start time gives several Ukrainian churches time to get here after their church services are over. The work will remain up in our sanctuary until the end of the week after Easter, April 12 or so.
One of the most prominent writers in Ukrainian literature, Lesya Ukrainka stands as a powerful voice of spiritual resilience, intellectual strength, and national dignity. Writing amid illness and hardship, she declared:
“Yes, I will smile through tears…”
She reminds us that beauty is not escapism; it is hope born in suffering. In the ancient Christian understanding, Christ Himself is the perfect Image of the Father — God’s living icon — who enters our brokenness to restore His likeness within us. Beauty, then, is not merely aesthetic. It is the renewal of humanity in Christ.
I am so grateful to Olga and Olha for helping us glimpse that holy beauty during this Holy Week and Easter season.
