Description
Icon: Christ, Ruler of All – Pantocrator, Coptic
Written by: R.Gallacher (1986)
Medium: Tempera on wood
Gold leaf: 23 carat
Size: A4 21.0 x 29.7 cm
Proceeds: 100% to Hotham Mission, Uniting Church, North Melbourne
This is a Coptic icon painted in 1986, bearing the name “Stephanos”. The original is located in the Ecumenical Centre, Geneva, Switzerland. A print was published in Icons – Windows on Eternity, which was compiled for the World Council of Churches by Gennardios Limouris to celebrate the twelve hundredth anniversary of the 7th Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 787CE.
This image of Christ is called “Pantocrator”, which means “ruler of all”. Christ rules at the end of all things, when God’s purpose in creation is complete. The Christian hope is that in the end, the whole universe will be subject to Christ. In Orthodox churches, the Pantocrator is located at the highest point in the church, at the top of the dome. Thus the congregation at worship is already living under Him, as id in the end time, the Messianic age. The challenge then is to live that way out in the world also, as if under Christ’s rule, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.
