Circle of Grace Lutheran Church, Gaffney, SC


	Icons by Pastor Gary Safrit
	Pastor Gary Safrit learned to paint icons by studying with monks and iconographers in the Eastern Orthodox Church. "Icons are more than paintings," said Safrit in a 1998 article in "The Lutheran" magazine. "They are a point of connection. They are holy places." He explained that icons are designed to stimulate interaction between a worshiper and the figure depicted in the painting, whether Jesus, Mary or a saint.



Safrit said he doesn't venerate icons as Orthodox believers do, but he says painting an icon is a spiritual process. It involves research, preparing natural materials, and even prayer and fasting. He then applies layer-upon-layer of color to the canvas in such a way that light seems to emanate from the icon.

Safrit has painted more than 30 icons, some on commission, and his works have been exhibited in a number of locations, including St. John's Lutheran Church of Salisbury, N.C., and Immanuel Lutheran Church of Greenwood, S.C. Some of his icons are located in churches throughout the Eastern United States.

Safrit graduated from Lenoir-Rhyne College in 1960 with a degree in sociology. He attended seminary at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, S.C., where he earned a master of divinity. He is now retired after serving 27 years as pastor of the Lutheran Church of Our Saviour in Greenville, S.C.

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