The Rev. Mary Green, an alumna from the Class of 1992, recently gifted Seminary of the Southwest with several icons she has written.
Dr. Claire Colombo and Alison Poage, Library Director, met with Green in June 2022 to discuss her vision for the icons once their stewardship was transferred to Seminary of the Southwest. “I think Mary would like to see the icons connect with people in many different ways and spaces on our campus,” Poage said, “But I noticed that Mary had a strong vision for the icons in the library and she mentioned this specifically on several occasions.”
One of those occasions was in Christ Chapel on April 19th, when Mary and several of her peers from the class of 1992 were visiting campus for a reunion. At the Eucharist, the icon The Savior in Glory was blessed and Mary opened the service with a few words about the icons.
“This concept of stewardship has been my motivation from the very beginning in discovering this gift of these hands producing these incredible images, which I can only say was a Spirit-led process,” Green said.
“Green’s icons and other artworks have blessed our community in so many ways over the years,” said Colombo. “We were happy to feature the icons ‘”‘Savior in Glory'”‘ in the 2017 issue of Soul by Southwest and ‘Annunciation’ in 2019. She contributed the charming watercolor ‘Family Visit in the Season of Covid’ to our 2020 issue, and will be contributing documentary sketches of Ukranian citizens to our 10th anniversary release. All of Mary’s images — whether of iconographic figures or of everyday life — carry something of the sacred into our midst.”
Green imagines Southwest students struggling in the library to finish a paper and needing a few moments of peace and inspiration right away, right where they are. The icons, which are holy images, could be there to provide this light.
“My dream is that they will be in the stacks,” Green explained as she was addressing students in Christ Chapel. “If you are struggling with something and you are sitting at your study carrel and you can’t do anything, you’ll just go sit and make friends with an icon.”
