![]() ![]() The border places this image in the Central West of New South Wales. ![]() As such, icons belong to all Christians no matter where they are from or what tradition they belong to. This is a very ancient, traditional form of iconography, a religious tradition belonging to the whole Church and coming from the time before the Great Schism between the Western Church and the Eastern Church in 1054. The icon Our Lady of the Central West is in the form of the Theotokos Oranta, that is, the Mother of God Praying. I was touched that there were members of the congregation who had come from hours away especially for this Solemn Blessing, as they already had a love of this icon as part of their prayer life. This finally happened in March 2021, with a Solemn Blessing during Mass as part of the Cathedral re-opening celebrations. Our Cathedral restoration began back in 2014, and Bishop Michael planned to have the icon installed there. The icon was professionally photographed, and copies were given to every parish and to members of the Diocesan Assembly copies are also given as gifts to visiting prelates and were taken as gifts in the days when Bishop Michael could travel overseas! It was unveiled for the Diocesan Assembly in 2016. ![]() As there was no model from which to work, I took over 10 months of research and prayer, before arriving at the final design it took another 2 months to finally complete. In 2015, Bishop Michael asked me to write an icon of Our Lady of the Central West for the sesquicentenary of the diocese. The reply was “Our Lady of Tarrawarra, of course.” So from his ordination Mass onwards, he has always inserted the prayer, “Our Lady of the Central West, pray for us.” Whilst there he asked a monk under what title Our Lady was venerated at the Abbey. When Bishop Michael McKenna (Bathurst Diocese) was preparing for his episcopal ordination he did a retreat at Tarrawarra Abbey. ![]()
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