Move Update
Many people are asking us: "have you moved yet??" The short answer is, no!
The longer answer is that, like so many people right now, we are having to adjust our plans in light of the economy. We have not been able, despite many efforts, to obtain the financing we need to make it possible to move to our hoped-for property in New Jersey.
What now? The Brothers of the Sacred Heart are incredibly patient with us, and are doing everything they possibly can to help us. May the Lord bless them! But even with that we just have not been able to gather the necessary resources to ensure that we could survive the move and thrive in that facility given its size and likely overhead. Miracles happen, of course, but up to now the Lord has asked us to plan ahead without one! :-)
We cannot pretend that this is an easy time for our monastery. But we must nonetheless mention some of those who have really gone out to bat for us, especially our episcopal patrons: our own Bishop John Michael, Cardinal George of Chicago, Bishop Cordileone in San Diego, not mention Archbishop Myers in New Jersey and Cardinal Keeler, retired Archbishop of Baltimore. We would also like to acknowledge the help of so many among our lay supporters, whose names we will not mention only in the interest of respecting their privacy (and for fear of leaving someone out!).
One of the things we have always said about this prospective move is that the Lord has an easy way to manifest His will: either the money is there or it isn’t! Well, it isn’t! So it falls to us to say with St. John Chrysostom, “glory to God in all things”!
Where does that leave us?
Well, the first and most important thing seems to be to let the Lord’s lesson sink in. It seems certain that He wants us to share something of the pain and loss that the world is going through now in these tough economic times. Now is not the time to be making grand plans involving money we do not have! Rather now is a time for lowering our eyes and returning again and again to our primary vocation of prayer, for ourselves, our Church, our friends and supporters and indeed the entire world.
On the other hand, we are faced with some other realities. First is that the things that we believe make this Newberry Springs property unsuitable for our growth remain unchanged. If we are to really pursue our ecumenical work, especially through giving retreats and living out our ministry of presence and public witness to the possiblity of Catholic-Orthodox union (the more work of our "Anastasis Project"), then we simply have to move.
Then there is the fact that we have already sold our property. we can certainly understand people scratching their heads over how it has come to pass that we sold this property before being in sure possession of a new one. We cannot really go into details, but we feel that we have a duty to our supporters to offer some explanation. The simple truth is that in the months prior to our closing escrow on the sale of the Newberry Springs property we understood that certain promises had been made (not by anyone mentioned in this report, I hasten to add) to make very large donations to ensure our relocation would take place. We certainly believed those promises to have been made. Our advisors believed them to have been made. It turned out that, following the close of escrow that, for whatever reasons, those promises fell through. That was when we began seriously to look at taking out a loan and so, step by step arrived at where we are now.
We say all this without bitterness. On a practical level, we realize now the importance of the saying “trust but verify!” But on a deeper, more important level, we remain faithful to the One on Whose promises we can always rely.
As for our future options, we are blessed that we are able to continue living here in Newberry Springs as tenants of our Coptic brothers who continue to pay their monthly mortgage to us faithfully. We are not faced with the need to move out tomorrow, but move we must sooner or later.
Where to go remains the major preoccupation of our working days at the moment. We are exploring a number options, both short-term temporary solutions as well as more long-term ones. And, as I said earlier, we have not lost hope that we might even now find a way of making it to New Jersey. More than that it is not wise to speculate. Stay turned for more news!
Meanwhile, on the good news front, we were blessed in August to receive a very generous grant from the Dan Murphy Foundation in Los Angeles. This grant was made to support the operations of our community, notably our ecumenical apostolate the “Anastasis Project.” Among other things, this grant provided Father Abbot Nicholas with the wherewithal to make a trip to the East Coast to visit potential supporters and then on to Rome to discuss our work with a number of prelates, including Cardinal Sandri of the Oriental Congregation, Cardinal Kaspar who heads the Vatican’s ecumenical office and others.
It is good to know that our work remains something deeply valued by the Church, including by our dear friends and supporters here in the U.S. We ask that you continue to remember us in your prayers and, to the extent you can after supporting your own parish, our material needs. Although we will likely have a new mailing address in 2009, although we may turn out to be physically farther from you—or indeed physically nearer!—we remain deeply committed to the life of authentic Byzantine monasticism in the Catholic Church as a witness to the possibility of complete unity among all apostolic Christians.
If you share these values, please let others know!