Identity concepts · August 2026 · for internal review
Four directions, all in the parish's blue and gold. Deliberate ground rule: in Orthodox tradition the icons of the Archangels are sacred images for veneration, so none of these marks depicts them. Instead they draw on what the parish alone owns: its 1959 Byzantine temple, the oldest inscription in Christian art, the arch of its doors, and its founding year.
A line rendering of the church itself: the drum, the dome, the cross, the arched windows. The building was modeled on the eleventh-century Church of the Holy Apostles and the seminary chapel in Brookline was copied from it. No other parish can wear this mark.
The oldest inscription in Christian art, drawn fresh for the parish: IC XC NIKA, Jesus Christ conquers, lettered in the four quadrants of the cross as it appears on the antidoron seal and across the Byzantine world. Unmistakably Orthodox at any size, and at home beside the temple the parish built in that tradition.
The simplest of the four: the arch of the church door holding the cross, drawn with the double gold rule used across the new website. It reads as a doorway, as a candle niche, and as the letter A. Strongest of the set at very small sizes.
A traditional parish seal built around the temple mark and the founding year. At home on bulletins, letterhead, certificates, and vestment cases; pairs naturally with any of the other three as the formal version of the identity.
How to read these. Concepts, presented for direction, in the same navy and gold as the current parish identity and the new website samples. The chosen direction gets a refinement pass: outlined type for print and embroidery, spacing and weight tuning at every size, and file kits for web, print, and signage. The current site header, which layers text over the holy icons of the Archangels, is retired respectfully by design: the icons stay in the church and on the iconostasis, and the mark carries the identity.