Profitis Ilias

The Vision

As a child, I attended Sunday service at the church of Profitis Ilias in the small village of Haradros, Greece. For the most part, this church before you reflects that same church from my childhood, maintaining a Byzantine style with Aegean elements, and other small details. But, at the same time, I included some new and different features to make it harmonious with this beautiful and unique environment.

One of these new features is the circular stone mounted on the side of this church. The words engraved on the outer circle of the stone are borrowed from a paragraph from the poem “Axiom Esti,” written by Nobel Prize-winning poet Odysseas Elytis, one of the 20th century’s most outstanding poets. I chose his poetry because there is mystery and depth in the simple clarity of his words. Elytis’ work has been described as astonishingly limpid, which means that behind the surface of his words, one can find a different meaning, and behind it something else, and so on and so on.

Elytis believed the mystery of light to be a special phenomenon, one that can only be seen in the Aegean Sea. The mystery of light is apparent in Elytis’ great creativity and illuminates his work. I think that light, Greek or otherwise, is not only inspiring, but also essential to our well-being. Though Elytis’ poems are difficult to translate into English, one may continuously explore beyond his lines to find new meaning and insights, and to discover something different and unique. I would like to use the words of Elytis to dedicate this church:

Because the clouds of flying miracles.
Because the mystery of lights that show us the dream.

I thought these words to be appropriate because of a personal experience I had here in 1999. In September of that year, when the cabin was still under construction, I decided to come up here for a few days during the hunting season. The night was cold and crisp, a perfect chance to glimpse some of Canada’s wonderful Northern lights, the aurora borealis.

At two o’clock in the morning, I walked out of the cabin and looked towards the lake. There I saw the most incredible Northern lights. Long and narrow flashes of light, amazing colours, gold, rose, and violet - all dancing in the dark, moonless night. Then everything froze. The lights stopped dancing, and the narrow flashes with sharp edges gave way to the soft, glowing shape of a face, crowded by a halo. I watched the haloed face as it hung in the sky for the longest time - I cannot say how long.

The next morning, I was sitting posted in the beautiful Ushta Valley, watching the steam from the creek filter through the trees on the hill across. I began to think about the previous night’s incredible vision, and it was then that I decided to build a church on this land. A land that I have come to enjoy, love, and respect, and whose natural environment has inspired me, just as the lights of the Aegean Sea inspired Elytis.

So here we are, almost ten years later, and this dream has finally become a reality.