Meeting with Supporters, Feb. 21
On Saturday, February 21 2009 about 70 friends and supporters of the Monastery turned out to pray with the monks and hear more of their plans for the future. Thanks to the generosity of the pastor, Father James Babcock, the gathering was held at Holy Cross Melkite Greek-Catholic Church in Placentia, CA.
Events began with a sandwich luncheon served in the Holy Cross hall by Hierodeacon Moses and his small team of volunteers. At 1:00 PM the clergy, monastics and faithful went to the church for the service of the Akathist Hymn led by Abbot Nicholas in the presence of His Excellency, Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, auxiliary bishop in San Diego and one of the patrons of our Anastasis Dialogue.
After prayer, the crowd returned to the hall for three talks. Bishop Cordileone spoke on the importance of the monastery and its Anastasis Dialogue both for Catholic-Orthodox ecumenism, and also for the liturgical life in the Catholic Church itself. Building on Bishop Cordileone's remarks, Abbot Nicholas spoke on the importance of Eastern monastic witness, especially as it helps broaden what it means to be authentically "catholic" in a church culture all-too often polarized by the cariacture of "liberal" and "conservative" points of view. Finally, hieromonk Maximos offered a PowerPoint presentation setting out how the monks plan, with the help of their newly formed Interim Capital Finance Committee, to move forward more transparently and collaboratively to realize the vision laid out in the two earlier talks. In particular, Fr. Maximos touched on the current financial constraints the monastery faces, and also the strategy the monks and their advisors are working out to help build an affordable monastic facility over the next decade.
Among guests who attended this important meeting were Abouna Karas St. Antony, representing the superior of St. Antony's Coptic Orthodox Monastery; Fr. Prior Hugh Barbour, O.Praem., of St. Michael's Abbey; Mother Anastasia of our sister monastery of Holy Theophany in Olympia, WA; Mr. Richard Grant of the Dan Murphy Foundation in Los Angeles; Professor Dr. Hans-Jurgen Feulner from Gaming, Austria; Jim Kearns, Chair, and other members of the Interim Capital Finance Committee as well as numerous other clergy and lay friends and associates of the monastery.
More pictures of the event can be found here. Further details of the plans laid out in the meeting will be published in coming weeks here on this webiste, together with written answers to some of the questions posed by participants in the event.
Father Abbot and the monks thank everyone who helped make this event possible!