Photos and text (c) Mark Hertzberg

       I had the privilege of being invited by Father Angelo Artemas to photograph vespers and evening services yesterday, Good Friday in the Greek Orthodox Church, at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church near Milwaukee.

        I came there as an architectural photographer, but photographed as a photojournalist, to show how the building works for its intended purpose, as an ecclesiastical building. I was allowed to shoot from wherever I wanted to go during the services, and was warmly welcomed by the congregation. The photos that follow show the service and rich traditions of the church, as well as the building. They are in order: first, the afternoon vespers service, and then the candlelit evening service, which included a procession around the outside of the church.

Congregants kissed the icon of Jesus Christ before vespers

Father David Hostetler holds the Gospel aloft during a procession around the sanctuary

Much of the liturgy is conducted by the priests behind the screen in front of the sanctuary. This is because the priests lead the congregation in prayer, rather than praying to them. As shown in a previous posting of interior photos of the church (https://wrightinracine.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/annunciation-greek-orthodox-church-2/)

Eugene Masselink’s icons were replaced by icons that are said to better reflect church doctrine. That is why there are no plans to put Masselink’s icons back in the sanctuary. Masselink’s icons are shown in the previous article.

Father Angelo Artemas takes the icon of Christ down from the cross

The shrouded icon (right) is then carried around the church

At the end of the service congregants, including children, express their reverence as they kiss the Gospel, the cross, and art work of the crucifixion of Christ which are displayed in a flower-decorated symbolic representation of the empty tomb of Christ. The empty tomb is part of the procession outside the church during the evening service, below:

 

 

 

 

Father David Hostetler lights congregants’ candles

 

The procession forms to go outside

Father Angelo Artemas gives congregants flowers from the symbolic empty tomb, as they kiss his hand at the end of the evening service.