Church Construction Update - July 2024

With the help of God, the construction of the new monastery temple has continued to move along very well. Despite many delays, the beautiful green metal roofing is now nearly complete along the flat portions, with the metal shingling for the two domes slated to be installed next. In addition, after having literally spent years trying by various means to acquire the cupolas with crosses (which will sit atop the domes) from Eastern Europe, we have now received word that they too are nearly finished and should be shipped to us shortly. It is our hope that they will arrive in time for Metropolitan Nicholas to perform the blessing for them when he visits for St. Panteleimon’s Day later this summer.

We are also happy to report great progress on the interior structural work of the trapeza (monastic dining hall) on the lower floor. The ceiling has been installed, and the walls have been plastered and painted. The last major remaining structural task for the lower level is the flooring. After this, we will need to begin purchasing and installing all the necessary commercial kitchen equipment to enable us to feed both the monastic community and our ever-growing number of pilgrims and guests.

Holy Cross has continued to see an enormous increase in the number of clergy and laypeople seeking to spend time at our monastery for spiritual retreat and renewal, with our guest houses continuously booked out months in advance. While such hospitality has always been a priority for us, it now constitutes perhaps our most important ministry to the Church beyond the core monastic vocation of prayer and personal repentance. This new trapeza (as well as the church itself) will be absolutely vital in allowing us to expand our ability to receive and care for such visitors – especially those hungering for traditional Orthodox monastic spirituality expressed in their own English tongue.

Progress on the upper level is also continuing apace. The plumbing and electrical work for the entire building has now been roughed in, and in the church proper our contractors are currently at work applying the interior plaster. After this, the two major structural items remaining for the church itself will be the flooring and the beautiful custom doors which Andrew Gould has recently finished designing.

Thanks to the grace of God, the generosity of our benefactors, and the hard work of the monastic brotherhood, we have been able to keep construction going continuously despite frequently tenuous financial circumstances. However, we are now about to face another challenging period, since multiple high-dollar items such as the roofing and plastering are now in progress simultaneously. In addition, we have recently learned that the benefactor who had pledged to sponsor the flooring for the main church (a very expensive item) will no longer be able to do so.

We are working with our various contractors, vendors, and artisans to get an updated estimate for the completion of the project. What we do know is that as of today, we still need to come up with funds for the following items:

Immediate needs

• Flooring for the trapeza
• Commercial kitchen equipment for the trapeza (app. $150K) as well as additional furniture for the dining hall
• Flooring for the church
• Doors for the church

Later needs

• Iconostasis for the church
• Woodworking for the church, including stasidia for the choir and monks as well as shrines, analogia, etc. (we have asked Andrew Gould to design these simply yet elegantly, in the hopes that they can be built by our own monks in-house)
• Holy Table for the altar of the church (we are extremely grateful that the famous stone carver Michael Lucas has volunteered to hand-carve this for us, although we will need to supply the marble for the Holy Table ourselves)
• Chandeliers for the church designed by Andrew Gould, including the central “choros” chandelier (app. $50K total)
• All the iconography for the iconostasis, church, and trapeza
• Necessary church vessels, liturgical covers for proskomedia table and analogia, etc.

Having gone through many serious temptations with this project, our experience has confirmed our faith that God’s loving providence will without doubt supply all that we need at the proper time. Nevertheless, we still need and fervently ask for your prayers and continued generous support as we struggle to finally complete this project –  so important not only for our own monastic life, but also for our mission of service to our many pilgrims, and above all for the glory of God and the witness of Orthodoxy here in the spiritual fields of the American land.

As always, if you would like any further information about the church project or want to know how best to help out, please feel free to call us at (304) 849-2072 or visit our website at www.holycross.org, where we have contact forms as well as galleries with the latest construction photos.