Description
The word Synaxis in Greek (Sobor in Slavonic), signifies in the Church a gathering of the people for a specific liturgical celebration, often but not always following the day of celebration of a major Church feast. Thus the day after Theophany, or the Baptism of Christ, would become the Synaxis of St. John the Baptist. In this icon, the term Synaxis refers to the gathering of all of the Angelic and Bodiless Powers together in an assembly with Christ in their midst. This is celebrated on November 8, the commemoration of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel with all of the Bodiless Hosts.
The ranks of these Bodiless Hosts are in ascending order: Angels, Archangels, Principalities, Authorities, Powers, Domitions, Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim. Christ is seen here in a rondel of light sitting upon a six-winged Seraphim and surrounded by angelic beings who represent all of the Bodiless Hosts. We on earth often forget that in the description of Creation, Heaven, or the immaterial worlds, precede Earth, or the material worlds. God has been in the midst of these immaterial worlds since the beginning of Creation, and is still loved and adored by most of that Creation.