Six Days of Creation in Maggie Valley.

Sts. Joseph and Andrew Orthodox Church, a small mission church nestled in the mountains of North Carolina near Asheville, will sponsor a Six Days of Creation Icon Writing Workshop the week of Oct. 29 through Nov 4, 2006. This is the second year for the workshop in beautiful Maggie Valley at the Living Waters Catholic Reflections Center. Master Iconographer Xenia Pokrovsky, formerly of Moscow and considered one of the world’s foremost icon painters, will lead the workshop in the millennia-old technique of Byzantine and Russian icon-painting. Her daughter, Anna Pokrovskaya Gouriev, and long-time student, Marek Czarnecki, will assist with instruction.

“We are very blessed to have Xenia Pokrovsky here,” said Fr. John Zboyovski, pastor of Sts. Joseph and Andrew Orthodox Church. “She has had worldwide influence on church art for almost 40 years, and there is probably no one in this hemisphere so knowledgeable and able to train others. It is remarkable to watch how tenderly this great woman guides her students to a new understanding and appreciation of the icon.”

The workshop also offers two evening lectures that are open to the public. Iconographer Marek Czarnecki from Meriden, Conn., will deliver the keynote address “Iconography: Holy Tradition & Holy History” on Sunday evening, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. Fr. Ilya Gotlinsky, pastor of Dormition of the Holy Virgin Orthodox Church in Binghamton, NY, will speak on Wed., Nov.1 at 7 p.m. about his pilgrimage to the Holy Land earlier this year.

Hexaemeron’s staff looks forward to being with Fr. John and his wife Pani Cindy Zboyovski again, who were the consummate hosts to our 2005 workshop in North Carolina.