Source: Orthodox Church in America
SPRINGFIELD, VA [OCA]
At the upcoming 21st All-American Council, taking place July 14–18, 2025, in Phoenix, AZ, a new official icon of All Saints of North America will debut for the veneration of the faithful.
In January 2024, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon issued a call for proposals for a new icon of All Saints of North America. In response, His Beatitude’s Office received a number of proposals from iconographers around the world. After giving each entry due consideration, His Beatitude decided to commission the new icon from master iconographer Anton Daineko, instructor at the Icon School of St. Tikhon’s Art Institute in South Canaan, PA. The icon was completed earlier this year and has been since housed at the Chancery offices in Springfield, VA.
The icon includes all the saints of North America listed in the Diptychs of the Orthodox Church in America as well as the newly-canonized righteous Olga of Kwethluk. In accord with His Beatitude’s initial call for proposals, at the center of the icon, Our Lord Jesus Christ is enthroned with his Mother and his Forerunner on either side of him in a posture of deësis.
As is traditional in icons depicting the synaxis of the saints of a particular locality, a major local temple appears in the background of the icon. For this element of the composition, His Beatitude asked Mr. Daineko to depict the Church of the Ascension on Unalaska, AK, a temple originally built by the hands of Saint Innocent himself.
His Beatitude will bless the new icon at the Council, and it will be available for the veneration of the faithful throughout the event. It is expected that the icon will then be returned to Virginia until the next All-American Council.