Is there a canon law against musical instruments or religious statues in devotional use?
Answer Samuel, To be honest, I am not sure whether the use of instruments in Orthodox worship is codified in canon law or not. I suspect it is not, and is rather a matter of long standing precedent. Otherwise, Greek parishes in this country would have been much more hesitant to introduce the use of organs. In the same vein, I don’t believe there is an actual canon law against pews. (But there should be!) Early examples exist of Orthodox icons in the form of carved ivory plaques. I have a few modern examples of carved icons of wood. Bronze castings would also fall into this category. None of these images are full round figures, i.e. statues. Again, I believe there is no formal prohibition against statues. We just never took a particular liking to them. Also, after the Iconoclastic period, iconography became much more styalized in form. Again, this was not by any formal decree. It’s just what seemed to work best. In general, the question of “is it canon law” is much less clearly defined
