What an inspiring story. The efforts of a few children raised quite a bit of money not for themselves (No parish playground, bigger fellowship hall, etc.), but to build a monastery.
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.
- Matthew 18:1-5
(UOC-USA) - As a child prepares to leave for school, his mother stands in the doorway praying that the Lord have mercy on him, keep him safe from harm, help him choose right over wrong, and grant him all that is good for him. When he sits to take his exam, his mother stands before an icon of Christ, and prays that the Lord open her child’s mind allowing him to do well on his test. The child is oblivious to his mother’s prayers and petitions on his behalf before God, and yet, he reaps the rewards of her efforts.
Just as the child benefited throughout the day from his mother’s constant prayers and petitions to God, so the Church benefits from constant prayers on her behalf. Saint Paul instructs us to “pray without ceasing”. (1 Thessalonians 5:17) While churches are the heart of Orthodoxy, monasteries are her soul. Churches are active in the world, doing good works, teaching and assisting the poor, while the monasteries stand before icons praying for those churches. It is the monastics that pray unceasingly for the Church’s well-being, and the welfare of her faithful.
At the 2010 Ukrainian Orthodox League Convention, His Beatitude Metropolitan Constantine, announced the plans for building a monastery for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. The Junior Ukrainian Orthodox League members voted on collecting funds towards the building of the monastery, setting a goal of $200/chapter for the following year. While some adults at the convention were doubtful of the juniors’ efforts, His Grace Bishop Daniel intervened on their behalf and supported the children’s efforts.
When the Jr. U.O.L. members of the Southfield Chapter heard of the plans for the monastery, a place of peace, refuge and prayer, they mobilized and decided they would do all they could to help the monastery get off the ground.
To cheer on the team, a mascot was chosen. From day one, Monakh Monomakh, named in honor of Volodymyr Monomakh who instructed his children in his Pouchenije Ditiam, to “hasten to do all good acts and praise the Lord with His saints,” cheered on the members. Monakh Monomakh’s smiling face appeared throughout the year, on all the flyers, and at all the fundraisers.
The collection began in earnest on Christmas Eve. The children began their fundraising by standing at the doorway, with a poster featuring an Orthodox church and Monakh Monomakh, asking for donations. The initial collection increased when the children donated all the tips they earned by providing and serving soda pop and water to the guests at the Christmas Eve dinner. The first day’s collection totaled $111.
On Christmas Day the children added $333 to their collection, which now totaled $444. Eager to keep the ball rolling, the children once again took up their posts, soliciting funds the following Sunday and were able to garner an additional $123, which brought their total to $567.
Having exceeded the initially requested amount of $200, the children were still eager to collect more towards the monastery. Chapter President, Andrew Powers, took to the podium during the Parish Annual Meeting, informing the parishioners and church board members of Chapter’s goals and intentions. The Chapter held a Crepe Luncheon on Cheesefare Sunday, serving freshly made crepes with cheese and fruit fillings. With Monakh Monomakh cheering them on, the members collected funds by holding a “Pascha Store”, where they sold Easter egg dyes, baskets, little icons, crosses and egg wraps. 1 a.m. Pascha morning, the parishioners found a beautifully decorated table in the church hall laden with Lenten cookies, fruits, coffee and lemonade. Touched by the children’s efforts to help them stay awake, and prompted by Monakh Monomakh’s smile, people left tips which were added to the monastery fund. Twice a month the Jr. U.O.L. Chapter manned the kitchen, preparing and serving freshly made borsch, varenyky, dessert and coffee.
Seeing how desperately the children were trying to collect funds for the monastery, parishioners happily gave what they could, and often donated the change from their purchases. Penny by penny, and dollar by dollar, the monastery fund grew to over $800!
With the deadline for donations looming on the horizon, the kids made one last ditch effort to increase their funds. On Mother’s Day the Chapter held a huge bake sale. Once again, Monakh Monomakh winked and invited everyone to partake of the homemade sweets.
Thanks to St. Mary the Protectress Parish members’ assistance, donations and support, the Southfield Jr. U.O.L. Chapter members were able to collect and donate $1,111 towards the building of the U.O.C. of U.S.A. Monastery. While it seems a fortune to the chapter, and took countless hours, and much dedication to collect, this “huge” amount is just a drop in the bucket.
The Orthodox Church measures its health by the quality of its monks and nuns. Orthodox monastics separate themselves from the world in order to pray unceasingly for the world. How blessed will we all be to have monastics praying for us, unceasingly.
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This is wonderful, but I wonder if this is just another example of cultural vanity.
ReplyDeleteWe have a number of relatively empty monasteries in the US already, and any number of additional micro-monasteries. It seems as if 'partnering' with other, already established monasteries would benefit all concerned. The Ukrainians, for instance, could partner with ACROD and the OCA to establishe a Monomakh Brotherhood or Skete within or attached to St. Tikhon's Monastery or at one of the lesser used ROCOR monasteries. Given relations with the EP, Moscow and the OCA, the Ukrainians could also partner with the Serbs (I think they've got a couple empty monastery buildings) or attach themselves as dependencies to one of Elder Ephrem's monasteries.
It just seems there is a lot of duplication of effort for the sake of cultural ego, rather than for the upbuilding of the Church.
Again, the children's collection for a monastery is itself wonderful and rightly commended.
You're not going to see the UOC-USA partnering with the OCA any time soon. I am not a fan of ethnocentrism, but I do see some value in monasteries with clear ideas as to their music and rubrics. I can't see an Ephraimite monastery working well with a set of Russian monks if for no other reason than everything they do is in Greek. For the Ukrainians a lot of their identity is tied with their Ukrainian origins. I think at this point a reduction in Ukrainianism would feel like a reduction in their identity.
ReplyDeleteAll that said, the kingdom will not be divided by custom or politics. I think we can enjoy the flowering of monasticism as it is planted around the world, but at the same time acknowledge that it is our love of God and neighbor that are of primary importance.
My idea was more one of related brotherhoods. For instance, adding a Ukrainian church and even dwellings to one the Ephraimite monasteries wouldn't be so difficult. We see this on Mt Athos where a Greek ruling monastery has a Romanian or Russian dependency, and that dependency might have other cells for those of other ethnicities. They are sometimes right next to each other. St. Paisius Velichikovsky also had brotherhoods separately composed of Greeks and Romanians and Russians, with only some mixing.
ReplyDeleteAll I'm saying is that cooperation in infrastructure might allow all concerned to do more than they could separately, spiritually, culturally and materially.
Alas, we all prefer our own way and our own apostles. We prefer kingdoms of one.
Now that's a great idea. Someone from inside the jurisdictional hierarchy will have to have the courage to suggest it and the backing to do something if the answer is yes.
ReplyDeleteIt's another example of on the cooperation between Orthodox jurisdictions. Getting the jurisdictions under the EP to work together could be a start. If they can't, no one else can. This sort of bottom up, intra-Orthodox cooperation - blessed from the top - is the sort of thing that would make it possible for the bishops to seriously discuss unity at some point in the future. Currently, the reason unity is off the table is that all politics are local, and Orthodox politics say there is no support for unity among the (cradle, immigrant) laity. Thus, the bishops can do nothing without their flocks.
ReplyDeletePartnerships between parishes, monasteries, para-church organizations, even the administrative and financial functions of dioceses and jurisdictions are the way to build support for unity - not EAs, clergy brotherhoods and once a year pan-Orthodox Vespers, which, while important, are top-down talk fests that build no political support for change.
It would be wonderful to see such partnerships in the spirit of St. Paisius, but I highly doubt that the ROCOR and the UOCUSA will be directly cooperating on anything anytime soon given the bad blood from WWII and prior that remains between them :-/.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's a good thing remembrance of wrongs is no longer a sin.
ReplyDelete