This is how you helped

One of the questions that you keep asking me when we meet face to face is how to support the Monastery. The obvious answer is to consider making a donation (and you can find all about how to do that by clicking the ‘Ways you can help’ button above) – that is the most important and practical way to help, regardless of how much or little you can actually donate. This is an atypical monastery, which is founded greatly on online donations – most of these donations are small, but they can be of huge help, especially if there are many of them.

However, there are other ways you can help found this Monastery, and I would like to give you a few examples, hoping you will all be inspired 🙂

For instance, there are now three confirmed authors who will write articles on various aspects of Celtic Christianity, which they will donate to our Monastery for publication and sale. These people – Prof Andrew Louth, Metropolitan Kallistos Ware and Frederica Matthews-Green (in the order I received their confirmations) – are great authors, people whose work is known and appreciated world-wide, so their sacrifice is significant.

Dr Avril Pyman-Sokolov donated the Monastery three wonderful works of her late husband, Russian painter Kirill Sokolov. When we shall have our monastic house (which is what I’m fundraising for), these paintings, which are inspired by his travels to Mount Athos, will be exhibited in the Monastery. I cannot express enough gratitude for Dr Pyman’s generosity.

Ben Anderson, one of the first friends of our Monastery, author of the McGunnegal Chronicles, will continue to donate 10% of sales of his books to our Monastery project at least through the end of the year, if not beyond.

Others have supported us by helping me travel, either by driving me from one place to another (some times for over 5 or 6 hours), or by buying me airplane tickets – this is especially easy for people who have extra flying miles, which can be used this way.

Nothing is useless; everyone can contribute. Some of you are helping me learn how to write HTML emails (yes, I’m slowly getting there!), a great man I’ve met in Denver is building up a new, better web-site for us, and so on.

Some of you talked to the local parish priest and arranged for me to give a talk or a presentation of the monastery in your parish. Others have convinced the parish council to make a donation to support the Monastery. Others have made for us the Thank-You cards I’m writing and sending you when you make a donation by cheque.

Everything counts. Everything helps. The most wonderful things is that it all comes from your love. Thank you all – that is, in fact, all I wanted to say. Thank you all, and let’s keep going.