The great liturgical artists unite gift, skill and spirituality. This is because making liturgical art is a priestly and prophetical act. Creation can praise God of its own accord, but it gives thanks through us, its mouthpiece. We are ourselves a union of matter and spirit, and so we are the meeting place of the material and spiritual worlds. In the words of the seventh century St Leontius of Cyprus: The creation does not venerate God directly by itself, but it is through me that the heavens declare the glory of God, through me the moon worships God, through me the stars glorify Him, through me the waters and showers of rain, the dew and all creation venerate God and give Him glory.

Each work of sacred art is an instrument within a larger liturgical orchestra, and so its design needs to harmonize with the whole. Egotism and the desire to make a statement has no room. Panel icons hang within a church and are venerated as part of liturgical ritual; murals are painted on the surfaces created by the architect; chanters sing music composed by composers and words written by hymnographers; clergy and laity have processions in a sacred choreography wearing woven and embroidered vestments. Each sacred artwork is part of the whole.

- Aidan Hart