The living tradition of the iconography and sacred art of the Orthodox and Catholic churches will be explored in a two-day symposium at Loyola Marymount University on Friday, Feb. 22 and Saturday, Feb. 23 from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. in University Hall’s Ahmanson Auditorium.
The first of a three-year series exploring the liturgical arts of these two great churches, the symposium will examine the beauty in sacred art, the ritual use of icons, praying with icons and the ministry of the liturgical artists.
World-renowned scholars, including keynote speaker Archimandrite Robert Taft, S.J., will explore the past and future of sacred art. Taft, an American Jesuit priest and archimandrite of the Byzantine rite, is an expert in Oriental Liturgy and professor at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome.
Among those speaking at the symposium will be Thomas Lucas, S.J., Sister Vassa Larin and Bissera Pentcheva.
Attendance is free but registration is required by Thursday, Feb. 14.
This year’s symposium, as well as the next two installments in the series, is sponsored by LMU’s Huffington Ecumenical Institute in collaboration with the Henry Luce Foundation and the Virginia H. Farah Foundation. Next year the symposium will focus on the role of liturgical music and the following year the topic will be religious architecture.