Sviatogorsk Lavra thanks ROCOR for refugee care

Vice-rector of Holy Dormition Sviatogorsk Lavra Metropolitan Arseniy of Sviatogorsk, brethren of the monastery and forced migrants, who have found shelter within the walls of the monastery, directed a written letter of gratitude to the Trustee Fund on Needs of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia for the aid, provided to refugees during 2014-2016, according to the Lavra’s site.

At the end of December 2016, on the eve of Christ Nativity holiday, another financial aid arrived at Sviatogorsk Lavra on the refugee maintenance from the ROCOR, USA.

Funds, received at the end of 2016, were partially spent on the purchase of the necessary medication to refugees, and became a major asset in solving financial hardships of the monastery due to the current heating season.

Given the electricity tariffs have increased three-fold, the payment of soaring accounts is a pressing issue for Sviatogorsk Lavra. The monastery was not ready for the long-time maintenance of such an amount of people, therefore any contribution to solving the maintenance issue of forced migrants is significant and valuable to the monastery.

“Indeed, God’s grace is to see active sympathy of one’s brethren in Christ in the adversity our Homeland and parish are experiencing now. In this time of troubles the concern of the Trustee Fund on Needs of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia is particularly precious to us, and we are sincerely grateful to you for your prayerful support and such a needed donation, offered to Sviatogorsk Lavra! We genuinely appreciate and always bear in mind the fact you are deeply worried about our monastery, empathetic about the people in plight who found their shelter at this place, for your responsiveness to the grief having overtaken to the Ukrainian land.

The Trustee Fund on Needs of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia has lent a helping hand to Sviatogorsk monastery and its displaced people before. The first money transfers were made in the years of 2014-2015.