RELIGION: Churches differ on sacred imagery, writes Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Portraying images of the divine/transcendent is not just an issue for Muslims. Dr Trevor Morrow, former moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, said that "any image, by its very nature, portrays an aspect or understanding of the divine as created by our own imagination and so will distort the character of God".
He continued that, just as with everyone, "it is important to be faithful to who a person is and not create a false image of God".
He said Presbyterians had struggled with portraying Jesus, "except where his humanity (as opposed to divinity) was concerned", though he felt the conventional "blond, blue-eyed Jesus" was also false in that he was more likely "a black, hook-nosed Jew".
Presbyterians would be "uncomfortable with the creation of religious images of God" but he did not believe this was a cause of as great a discomfort as in the past.
It was rooted in "a sense of the awesomeness and uniqueness of God", crude imitations of whom "would create a sense of uneasiness where Presbyterians were concerned".
Reflecting on reaction in the Middle East to cartoons of Muhammad, he said "we don't have within our tradition the sense of shame and honour which is fundamental to Middle Eastern culture".
The Christian tradition "placed greater emphasis on compassion and the mercy of God as opposed to honour, respect, and the duty we ought to give God". There was "not the same sense or intensity about preserving honour."
The President of the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Rev Desmond Bain, said that, though his church did not have images either, it used plain crosses in worship (as do Presbyterians) and candles - as symbols of the light of Christ. The issue was "not one which exercised Methodists very much", he said.
Seán Mullan of the Evangelical Alliance Ireland group said their position on images would be similar to the traditional Reformed Protestant one - "they wouldn't be seen as something to be used in worship". However, many evangelical churches would have pictures of Jesus or illustrations of biblical scenes.
Images and statues were a feature of many "high" Church of Ireland churches, though they would be absent from its "low" churches which would feel a greater affinity with the evangelical tradition, said Church of Ireland historian Dr Kenneth Milne.
But he did not know "when I heard the issue last discussed" in the church, he said.
In the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches the use of sacred images is widespread.
In a 2001 document, the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship said that "the use of sacred images is of major importance in the whole area of popular piety".