Union of All Icons is blessed to feature the iconography of Fr. Luke Dingman who reposed in 2022 after being tonsured "Hieromonk Ephraim" by Abbot Father Paisios from the monastery of Saint Anthony in Arizona.
Archpriest Father Luke had served as an Orthodox priest in the San Lorenzo Valley since his ordination in 1987, where he lived with his wife, Nancy. He was Assistant Priest at St. Lawrence Orthodox Church in Felton, California. The couple had two sons and a daughter who is an Orthodox nun at St. John the Forerunner Monastery in Goldendale, Washington.
Fr. Luke became proficient in many art mediums through early work in an advertising agency, which helped pay his way through Arizona State University, where he graduated with a major in Fine Arts. He spent the next five years as an Illustrator-Art Director with Campus Crusade for Christ in Southern California, where he met another staff member, Nancy Willman. They married in 1970, left staff of Campus Crusade for Christ in 1974 and moved to the little town of Brookdale, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where Fr. Luke worked in a variety of art forms, from book illustrations, cartooning, caricatures, and newspaper ads to wildlife and landscapes in oils and watercolors.
In the early 80's, during his journey to Orthodox Christianity, Fr. Luke began his study of Byzantine Iconography and painted Byzantine-style Icons for churches and individuals throughout the United States, Canada, and internationally. Before his advanced Parkinson’s disease caused him to cease accepting commissions he filled his home church with holy images!
You can view more of Fr. Luke's work and read more about his life at his website.