Help the Brotherhood Grow

By the grace of God, and through the tremendous generosity of all our benefactors, we have finally completed the structure of our new church and trapeza. There is certainly still work to be done: constructing the permanent iconostasis, carving the stone Holy Table, and frescoing the church with icons. We will be continuing to work on these remaining tasks, and we are incredibly grateful for all the generous support that has enabled us to come this far already.

However, now that the new church and trapeza are able to be used, we must also turn our attention to the other needs of the monastery. In recent years the flow of pilgrims has grown far larger than at any time in our past. Among these pilgrims are many men seeking to serve Christ in the monastic life. But we have been at full capacity for monastics for many years, and thus sadly have been unable to accept more of these men to begin the monastic life here at Holy Cross.

We are therefore seeking to begin construction on a new monastic dormitory to finally allow us to expand our brotherhood. While there have been approximately 27 of us for the past decade, this new dormitory will create an additional 19 monastic cells, thus providing ample space that should last well into the future.

In addition, the first floor of the dormitory has been designed to help us with another urgent problem facing our community: the care of the sick and elderly. As our existing brotherhood ages, we have found that our current facilities are simply inadequate for long-term care of those with various disabilities. The new dormitory will provide permanent living space for up to 4 aged or infirm monastics, as well as dedicated cell attendants for each of them. In addition, there will be 2 cells reserved for short-term recovery of otherwise healthy monks following sickness or surgery. There will also be two exam rooms to allow medical professionals to treat monks who are not physically healthy enough to travel to town.

This new dormitory is a vital step forward in the history of Holy Cross Monastery in particular, as well as Orthodoxy in America in general. The American people are thirsting for Holy Orthodoxy as never before. Please help us to be able to open our doors to the men whom Christ is calling here!