"Come and See" - About Us

About Us

Icons, Books & Art

Home Icons Books Art How to order Contact Us Order Form The King's Jubilee

"COME AND SEE" Icons, Books & Art is an enterprise to make available beautiful mounted icon prints, quality Orthodox books and art prints at affordable prices, to help further the ministry of the Church.

"COME AND SEE": "Philip said to him, 'Come and see.'" St. Philip said this to his friend Nathaniel who couldn't believe that any good thing could come out of Nazareth. Philip knew that to see Christ would transform him and it did! An early Christian said something like "If someone wants to know what you believe, show him the icons." There are several families in our parish today whose first encounters with Orthodox Christianity was that strange looking art they call "icons." Yes, icons call us to prayer. Icons also have been used to call many to Christ and to the Church. Consider the story of St. Mary of Egypt.
The icon that forms our logo is what is above the front doors of St. Philip's Antiochian Orthodox Church in Souderton, PA. You will find many links to the parish website on our pages and you will find a link to "COME AND SEE" Icons, Books & Art on the parish webpage. We feel a strong connection to the local church as an expression of Orthodox Christian incarnational theology. Our mounted icon prints are incarnational, as well. Most of us cannot afford handwritten icons for our homes. These prints are affordable and the original icons are from local parishes. They should be placed on the Holy Table at your local Orthodox Church for a Liturgy. This blesses them in the presence of Christ. When they are brought home and displayed in your prayer corner they connect your home every day to the Eucharistic fellowship of your local community.

Icons: We specialize in icons by living, American iconographers. We are continuing to expand our collection by photographing icons in various local parishes and producing icon prints from them, with the permission of the iconographers, paying agreed upon royalties. The people of St. Philip's have found that it is quite wonderful to be able to have the same icons at home that they see at church. It is also special to be able to give them as gifts to former parishioners or college students who are now away from home. If you want to arrange for your parish's special icons to be made available in this way drop us a line at icons@comeandseeicons.com and we will see what we can do.
We continue to add new icons as they are produced. We edit the stories of the Saints and find the troparia for the stickers on the back. Those stickers are a nice added value and a great evangelistic tool! A visitor to your home is admiring the 'artwork' and you can take it off the wall or shelf and share the Saint's story with him/her accurately and succinctly.
These icons are heat laminated then mounted with sheet adhesive onto 1/2" Microstrand Wheatboard. This protects them and minimizes the possibility of warping. The edges are then varnished, along with the back. There is a horizontal keyhole slot routered in the back for hanging level.

Books: We have decided to concentrate on the Icons, Prayer Cards & NoteCards for now. Of course, we feature Niko Chocheli's wonderfully illustrated books, with the added touch of him signing it personally for whoever is going to receive it. We also have St. Philip's Community Cookbook. If your parish produces a quality cookbook, we would be happy to feature it here to help you distribute it, especially if you have good recipes for fasting days. We also have: The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Your World, Edited by Heather Zydek, last chapter by Cranford Joseph Coulter, owner of "Come and See" Icons, Books & Art.

& Art: We currently have available Noah's Ark by Niko Chocheli, award winning artist from the Republic of Georgia. We are in conversation with several other artists and textual illustrators to make available prints and notecards featuring their works. We also offer beautiful notecards; some with icons; some with art by Orthodox Christian artists; some illustrated by children.

Our mailing address is:

"Come and See" Icons, Books & Art, 27 North Front Street, Souderton, PA 18964-1148

The founder and director of "Come and See" Icons, Books & Art is Cranford Joseph Coulter. He started this because of his love for the icons and to provide support for ministry to the homeless and poor in Philadelphia called The King's Jubilee, which was founded in February of 1989. Since before it was organized or named, Joseph has been coordinating the distribution of hot meals to people on the streets of Philiadelphia one night each week. The King's Jubilee feeds an average of 100 people every week, as well as distributing clothing, blankets and toiletries in Jesus' Name. They also assist other frontlines, non-government supported, Christian ministries in the city to find needed materiel and resources. This is all done on a shoestring, with no paid staff. Thus, "Come and See" Icons, Books & Art is a "for profit" business. But it is hoped it will provide the needed income to continue to support the ongoing ministry to the least of these.
For more personal background and news, you can visit Joseph's Page.

Home Icons Books Art How to order Contact Us Order Form The King's Jubilee (Back to top)