To the esteemed readership of this publication: Grace and peace from God, beloved brethren and children in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

At the very heart of the Christian Gospel lies the joy-filled proclamation that our loving God, who is not only infinite and invisible but also beyond the confines of time and space, became visible and containable in the person of Jesus Christ — an affirmation that bespeaks our Lord’s loving and eternal desire to be with, and amongst, all of His creation. In this regard, icons are a revelatory ‘utterance’ of this central tenet of the Christian faith, a theological declaration in colour that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) in reality, that our Lord God is the Emmanuel (God forever with us) extending before us, silently yet most emphatically, endless horizons to encounter Him and His future kingdom, and, in so doing to share in His interminable beatitude. Icons unlock a world to us whee all concern fade away, where all challenges and consternations become extraneous, ushering in their stead our Lord’s promised perpetuity and genuine fulfillment. For this reason, icons have correctly been called, ‘windows into heaven,’ where we are given glimpses of eternity and permanence in the here and now. Indeed, in standing before an icon, our gaze is taken up into the heavenly and transfigured realm where we are genuinely enable to stand in the presence of our Lord, the Virgin Mother, and the communion of all the Saints. Our innately human thirst for ultimate meaning and continuity is quenched here since we behold, even by foretaste, our original and intended beauty, which knows no end.

Of equal importance is the unambiguous pronouncement icons make of the innate goodness of materiality — indeed, of the world’s sacredness, as we have repeatedly emphasized throughout our entire Patriarchal tenure — and related to this, the world’s transcendent beauty. On the last point, the Fathers of the Church make it abundantly clear that every human person, created in the image of Christ, is an epiphany of our Lord and, as such, holds a gifted potential to reflect the face of God, the original beauty of the image, “τό ἀρχέτυπον κάλλος τῆς εἰκόνος.” As stated in Dostoevsky’s work, icons remind us that ‘beauty will save the world’ since we perceive the ultimate telos of all creation in beholding our Lord’s beauty. Consequently, it also follows that icons are an essential reminder that the spiritual life, far from being a struggle to overcome materiality, is, on the contrary, a struggle for its transfiguration — namely, the attainment of its true purpose — into the image of the incarnate Christ, the God-man “Θεάνθρωπος.” Icons are, therefore, a remarkable ‘theological language’ in colour, elucidating the restoration of our redeemed human nature in the person of Jesus Christ, but more so, the regeneration of the entire created universe. In this way, icons reveal that no material element is to be excluded from the design of God’s redemption; on the contrary, all materiality act as windows giving the world glimpses of eternity — namely, an anticipatory awareness of reality as it will be in the age to come.

In a world that hardly seeks the transcendent beauty of the eternal, more often being affixed instead on the ephemeral, In Search of the Nativity: A Visual Pilgrimage by Alexis Xenakis opens to the reader a world of inexhaustible treasures, wherein is revealed God’s resplendent and unfading light through which His divine and enduring beauty can be beheld. Throughout the book, we are given the opportunity ‘again and again’ to contemplate the beauty of Christ — “the effulgence of God’s glory” (Hebrews 1:3) — the Virgin Mother, the Saints and transfigured creation, all of which not only point towards future or transcendent realities, but also allow us to participate in these within the present. In so doing, every page is a heavenly ‘call’ drawing us into a world where God’s joy and salvation are all-pervasive, and the mysterious presence of fellowship with Christ, together with the communion of Saints, can be felt in a profoundly mysterious way. Beyond the countless icons furnishing the book, there are clear and pertinent descriptions of their provenance and intentionality. What is even more fascinating are the lengths to which the author has gone to capture such a broad spectrum of icons throughout history and the contemporary world. We encounter iconographic traditions from Italy to Byzantium (including modern-day Greece and Türkiye) and from the Holy Land to the Americas — all distinct yet united by a desire to be taken into the beyond, the fullness of a future life in God’s eschatological kingdom. Indeed, the book’s focus on iconography in the Americas makes an integral and unprecedented contribution. We are also introduced to the many iconographers who, through their sacred art, leave indelible impressions of our original and intended beauty upon our hearts. Finally, the book wonderfully ‘concludes’ with the stations of the Cross, prefiguring in this way that which follows the life-saving Cross — that is, the glorious and saving Resurrection of Christ, which has triumphed over death and filled all things with the radiance of Christ’s everlasting light, “τό φῶς τό ἀΐδιον.” This is a most fitting end to the entire work’s underlying thread: the ‘life-begetting’ declaration that God’s love will ultimately be forever victorious.

For this reason, we offer our heartfelt congratulations to this publication’s author, Mr. Alexis Xenakis, for his extensive and substantial endeavour of love, which leave the reader truly uplifted, heartened,and encouraged to behold the world made anew by the good news of God’s definitive victory over death. Genuinely inspired by the mystagogical journey leading to the mellifluous hope of the fullness of a forthcoming life in God’s eschatological kingdom, we gladly extend our paternal and Patriarchal benediction and remain with great love and honour.

At the Ecumenical Patriarchate, on the Feast of the Indiction, 2023

Your fervent supplicant before God,