Angelic

A few years ago I visited Ethiopia and was able to witness the wonders of a little known corner of Christendom, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. It has an art form and liturgy quite different from our western traditions yet witnessing to the same Gospel.

One of their most beautiful Churches is Debre Birhan Selassie. It’s ceiling is covered with wide eyed angels with African faces. Scores of them are featured wing to wing in vivid reds, blues and oranges overlooking the worshippers below.

We probably do not think much about angels but they feature regularly in the Bible as God’s messengers and as heavenly creatures standing in worship before the throne of God. As such they are a model for our own worship here on earth.

This week the church celebrates the feast of St. Michael and All Angels and as we stand to sing our hymns this morning you may wish to look up to St Stephen’s angels standing atop our pillars. In moments when I am particularly moved in worship, I sometimes imagine these angels taking flight and looping through the arches as they give glory to God. Isaiah famously had a vision of something similar;

“I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”