When I visit places connected with the Episcopal Church, I often see icons on display. They appear in churches, clergy offices, conference centers and private homes. The popularity of icons is a new development among us. Twenty or 30 years ago, it was rare to see an icon in an Episcopal Church setting.

This development is part of a larger movement in which Western churches have rediscovered the riches of Eastern Christianity. In the last century, many Orthodox Christians left their traditional homelands and settled in Western Europe and North America. At the same time, there has come to be within Orthodoxy a renewed appreciation of traditional iconography.

Another reason for the popularity of icons among Episcopalians is that no single style of visual art currently holds the attention of the Episcopal Church. At one time, we were busy building churches and dedicating stained glass windows reminiscent of the Middle Ages. Now we invest a smaller portion of our corporate wealth in the visual arts, and the works that result are diverse in style. Icons can be relatively inexpensive, especially if they are reproductions. There is room for such art among us.

This interest by Episcopalians in icons also matches what's happening in society. It is a commonplace to speak of young people today as more visually oriented than their elders. At the same time, mass media floods everyone with countless powerful images, many of them deceptive, degrading, and otherwise contrary to the Spirit of Christ. Society offers its icons. The church can provide a life-enhancing alternative.

Little is said about icons in the Episcopal Church. They do not appear controversial. Apparently they are either tolerated or welcomed. It has been said that the iconography of Anglicanism is verbal, but no one seems to object when pictorial iconography supplements this verbal iconography.

Perhaps the reason for this attitude is a tacit realization that icons are rooted in the Bible. They are an outcome of the Incarnation. The story is told verbally in scripture and the lives of saints is told through line and color in the icon. The principle asserted by the early church, that honor given to the icon passes to the prototype, is consonant with an understanding of Christ as the visible image of the invisible God.

Episcopalians are tempted to overlook the Iconoclastic Controversy that resulted in the Second Council of Nicaea (787). The relative honor given to icons by this important council is a mediating position between idolatry and the worship of matter on the one hand, and denial of the power of God to work through matter on the other. The conciliar teaching about icons is ultimately a teaching about Christ: "The pictorial image in iconography and the verbal narrative in the Gospels are in agreement with one another, and both alike emphasize that the Incarnation of God the Word is genuine and not illusory ..."

One of the tragedies of church history is that the teaching of Nicaea II was misunderstood in the West. Perhaps the time has come for the Lambeth Conference to endorse the doctrine of Nicaea II regarding icons. On an experiential level, the truth of this doctrine is appreciated by Anglicans as we encounter the icon as a door to the kingdom and a channel of grace.

The popularity of icons among us suggests that here we have a natural outgrowth of our faith in the Incarnation. But something more is involved: a return to our historic roots. Belief in the catholicity of the Episcopal Church means that we are part of the one church, that church whose theology allows for icons and whose devotion often includes them.

Last year marked the 1,400th anniversary of St. Augustine's mission to England. The Venerable Bede reports that Augustine and his companions carried with them "the likeness of our Lord and Savior painted on a board." Christopher Pierce Kelley suggests that this was an icon, and that this icon gave its name both to the cathedral at Canterbury and, indirectly, to all places in the Anglican Communion that bear the title "Christ Church." Icons are not alien to Anglicanism: They belong to us by virtue of our belief and our history.

There are already iconographers at work within the Episcopal Church. Anglicans have written articles and books on icons. Anglicans appear in icons. What further steps await us?

At first sight, icons look very similar. Before long, however, the viewer can recognize differences and identify distinct schools so that, for example, a Russian icon is not confused with one from Crete. As iconography comes to flourish within the Episcopal Church, it is likely that distinctive schools will appear.

Another issue is the veneration of icons in public worship. It is extremely rare to see icons used in the Episcopal worship in the way they are used among the Orthodox. In time, however, kissing icons and censing them may become accepted activities in some places.

Such developments may seem hard to imagine. Yet earlier periods would have found it hard to imagine elements of Anglican worship that later came to be widely accepted. A typical Anglican worshiper in 1825 would be surprised by features popular in many places in 1925. In a time of rapid change like our own, this process may repeat itself and include the public veneration of icons.

The great scholar and hymnographer John Mason Neale wrote a poem in which he looked ahead to a renewal of tradition and holiness in the Church of England. He spoke of the day when long processions with banner, cross, and cope would again sweep through cathedral aisles, when prayer for the departed, the minor offices, and the daily Eucharist would be accepted practices. To a significant degree, his prophecy has come true. Did this saint, well acquainted with the Eastern churches, dream also of the icon's return to Anglicanism? Like many of us, Neale had icons in his study. Perhaps they heralded the current return of the icon, a development that has not yet achieved its fullness.

The Very Rev. Charles Hoffacker is rector of St. Paul's Church, Port Huron, and dean of the Blue Water Convocation in the Diocese of Eastern Michigan.