EPIPHANY'S GARDEN OF ALL SAINTS (1)   ALL SAINTS (2) Eight years ago the parishioners of Epiphany began to landscape the area south of our temple with camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons. This area, sloping gently southward and covered with loblolly pines, provides good drainage and filtered sunlight well suited to the above class of plants. Most of the camellias are varieties of Camellia japonica which thrive in the South. CAMELLIAS The azaleas are mostly deciduous native azaleas and hybrids of the Exbury azaleas crossed with native American species for heat resistance. The rhododendrons are almost all hybrids selected not only for their beauty but also for their ability to thrive under Southern climatic conditions. The project is ongoing, for there are always some plants which do not survive and must be replaced. DECIDUOUS NATIVE AZALIAS In addition Japanese maples are being planted to provide colorful foliage in the spring and fall. Our selections of plants offer an assortment of camellia blossoms in March followed by the blooming azaleas in April which are succeeded by the splendor of the rhododendrons in May. RHODODENDRONS We dedicate Epiphany's Garden to All Saints, whose intercession we implore daily on our behalf, and in so doing we adhere to the ancient traditions and cosmology of the Eastern Church going back to the Church Fathers and beyond them to the Apostles and to the ancient Jews. (See COSMOLOGY elsewhere in this site) Few have explained this as well as Bishop Kallistos Ware in THE ORTHODOX WAY, ISBN: 0913836583 which we quote in pertinent part below: "Made in the divine image, microcosm and mediator, man is priest and king of creation. … First, man is able to bless and praise God for the world. Man is best defined not as a "logical" but as a "eucharistic" animal. He does not merely live in the world, think about it and use it, but he is capable of seeing the world as God's gift, as a sacrament of God's presence and a means of communion with Him. So he is able to offer the world back to God in thanksgiving.: 'Thine own from Thine own we offer to Thee, in all and for all.' (Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom) Secondly, besides blessing and praising God for the world, man is also able to reshape and alter the world, and so to endow it with fresh meaning. … Man is not just a logical and eucharistic animal but he is also a creative animal: the fact that man is in God's image means that man is a creator after the image of God the Creator. This creative role he fulfills … through the clarity of his spiritual wisdom; his vocation is not to dominate and exploit nature, but to transfigure and to hallow it. In a variety of ways … man gives material things a voice and renders the creation articulate in praise of God. … So man is priest of the creation through his power to give thanks and to offer the creation back to God; and he is king of the creation through his power to mold and fashion, to connect and diversify." pp 53 - 54 Thus the horticulturist, the plant breeder, and the gardener alter and augment, connect and diversify the flora of the earth by selection, by selective breeding, by hybridizing, and, more recently, by genetic manipulation to create new plant forms for food and fiber and a glorious and ever changing array of new and beautiful plants to delight the senses and to appeal to our aesthetic perceptions. One needs only to visit the local garden center to observe man's role in new creation, for very little of what is offered appears in nature, the greater part being the product of man's genius in application to the laws of nature. And so, man, king of creation and co-creator with God has fashioned a splendid assortment of plants for display in Epiphany's Garden which we, in turn, as priests of creation offer up in thanksgiving to the honor and glory of God, the Holy Virgin, and All Saints to whom we also dedicate this page. JAPANESE MAPLES KONTAKION OF THE SAINTS - Tone 8 To You, O Lord, Author of all creation, the universe offers the God-bearing Martyrs as the first-fruit of nature. Through their prayers and the intercession of the Mother of God preserve Your Church, Your dwelling-place, in perfect peace, O Most Merciful One.   ALL SAINTS   ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We express our gratitude to Dr. James Murray, Professor Emeritus, Georgia State University and to Fr. John Matusiak, Communications Director, Orthodox Church In America for their advice in the preparation of this page. FOOTNOTES: 1) The Feast Day of All Saints is celebrated in the Eastern Church on the first Sunday following Pentecost and in the Western Church on the first day of November. 2) Icon of All Saints courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline, MA.   Our Church:  Our Identity  |   Parish History  |  Our Temple  |  Byzantine Metropolia Instruction-Canon Law  |  Greek Catholic Union  |  Four Hierarchs-Four Martyrs Garden of All Saints  |  Parishioners in Iraq Our Traditions: Theophany-Epiphany  |  The Diaconate  |  Our Lady of the Willow Frankincense  |  Water  |  Iconostasis  |  Hagia Sophia  |  St.Nicholas of Myra Pentecost  |  Theotokos  |  Cosmology  |  Ordination of Married Men The Orthodox Brethren: Eternal Memory  |  Mother of Churches  |  Christ the Savior Miscellanous: Islam-Jihad  |  The Chaldean Church  |  Other Sites Home Copyright © 1999 - 2005 by Epiphany Byzantine Catholic Church. All Rights Reserved.