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Dear Friends,

Our brotherhood's services at Holy Cross Monastery remain closed to the public - including during Holy Week and Pascha (May 5).

We continue working to resolve issues with Alameda County and obtain a Conditional Use Permit, but it is a lengthy, challenging process.

However, our monastery's abbot, Father Stephen, has been serving a full schedule of Lenten services (including Liturgies on Sunday mornings) at St. Christina Orthodox Church in nearby Fremont, CA.

He will continue to perform services there throughout Holy Week and Pascha through May 19, 2024.

All these services in Fremont are open to the public and are conducted in English. (For more information, see below) 

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Moreover, Father Stephen is scheduled to serve Paschal Vespers at Sts. Kiril and Metodi Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Martinez, CA at 1:00 PM on Velikden May 5, 2024.

He will also be serving Divine Liturgy there on Sunday, May 26 at 10:30 AM to honor Sts. Kiril and Metodi Bulgarian Orthodox Church's patron Saints (Cyril and Methodius). (See details below)

Services at Sts. Kiril and Metodi Bulgarian Orthodox Church will be primarily conducted in Bulgarian and Church Slavonic.

Fresco of the Resurrection from Chora Church in Constantinople (14th century) Our brotherhood continues to face many formidable challenges that need to be overcome in order for us to "resurrect" the monastery and enable our friends and supporters to visit us during some of our services These challenges are becoming very burdensome and time-consuming,  as we work to comply with a number of issues with Alameda County So please continue to help our monastery in its monastic ministry to God and help us enable our friends and supporters to visit us occasionally! "Ce voi răsplăti Domnului pentru toate câte mi-a dat mie?"  (Psalmul 115:3) "What shall I give to the Lord for all He has given me?" (Psalm 115:3 LXX) "Какво да въздам Господу за всичките Му благодеяния към мене?" (Псалом 115:3 LXX)

We Continue to Need Your Help   Dear friends of Holy Cross Monastery, For Orthodox Christians this year, Palm Sunday falls on April 28 and Holy Pascha falls on May 5, 2024. As we approach these holiest days of the year for all Christians - Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Pascha (Easter), Holy Cross Monastery really needs your help. Our monastery has been here quietly serving God for 45 years now, living in peace and harmony with our neighbors. But one of our more recent neighbors has been using county agencies to cause us as much trouble as possible. As a result, our monastery is currently facing a Golgotha of its own, as it remains temporarily closed for the foreseeable future. This means that our Holy Week and Paschal services will not be open to visiting friends and supporters again this year. Although we are the only Orthodox monastery in the actual San Francisco Bay Area, there are a number of Orthodox churches in nearby cities. You will find links to many of them listed below. Here at the monastery, our monastic brotherhood continues its daily cycle of liturgical prayers, of course. But these are closed to visitors for the foreseeable future, while we continue working to bring various issues into compliance with guidelines set by Alameda County. Meanwhile, if you have names of people for whom you would like us to pray, you can send your commemoration list (pomelnic, поменик, помяник) to us by mail or email. We are currently not having gatherings or hosting events at our monastery. Therefore please do not plan to come here to celebrate the Resurrection or share a picnic lunch with friends on Pascha (Orthodox Easter) on May 5, 2024. If you would like to visit us at some other time in the future simply as friends - in the same way that friends visit our neighbors, you may. But you will have to do so as an individual or as an individual family and not as a group. You will also have to let us know and make arrangements in advance. In order to resolve various issues with Alameda County, we have needed to retain attorneys, engineers, surveyors, architects, contractors, and other specialists.  All of this is very costly and expensive and comes at a time when the only certain income our monastery has is my own personal social security check. So we are asking you to continue to help us do whatever it is going to take in order for us to "resurrect" the monastery and resume doing what we have quietly been doing for nearly half a century up until now. Please help us, if you can. The Holy Apostle Paul says: "He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each person give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver." (2 Corinthians 9:6-7) May our Lord bless you all a hundredfold for your kind generosity in helping us to continue our monastic ministry to God and to resume our service to God's people. We wish you all a spiritually rewarding Great Lent and Holy Week and a joyful, radiant feast of the Resurrection! Below are links to many Orthodox churches in the East Bay. I will be serving often at two of them over the next few months (see below and to the right for details). You are often in our thoughts and always in our prayers. Please remember us in your prayers as well. We miss you so very much.  With love and blessings, Father Abbot Stephen and the brotherhood   Some Orthodox Churches Located in the East Bay   These are some nearby Orthodox churches where you can attend services here in the East Bay: St Innocent Orthodox Church 1047 Serpentine Lane, Suite 300, Pleasanton, CA 94566 St. Christina Orthodox Church 3721 Parish Ave, Fremont, CA 94536 Our monastery's abbot, Father Stephen, will be serving Sunday Liturgies and many other services at St. Christina's from now through Sunday, May 19th. Services at St. Christina's are conducted in English. (See the right-hand column for details and links.)  St. Michael the Archangel Orthodox Church 2425 Olivera Rd, Concord, CA 94520 Holy Resurrection Romanian Orthodox Church 26050 Kay Ave, Hayward, CA 94545 Resurrection Greek Orthodox Church 20104 Center St, Castro Valley, CA 94546 Ascension Greek Orthodox Cathedral 4700 Lincoln Ave, Oakland, CA 94602 St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church 1955 Kirker Pass Rd, Concord, CA 94521 Father Stephen is currently scheduled to serve Matins (Orthros) at 9:00 AM and Divine Liturgy at 10:00 AM at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church on: Sunday, July 21, 2024 Sunday, July 28, 2024 Services at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church are conducted in Greek and English. Sts. Kiril and Metodi Bulgarian Orthodox Church 1551 Shell Ave, Martinez CA 94553 Father Stephen is scheduled to serve Paschal Vespers at Sts. Kiril and Metodi at 1:00 PM on Sunday, May 5 (Orthodox Easter - "Великден"). He is also scheduled to serve Liturgy at Sts. Kiril and Metodi Church on Sunday, May 26, 2024 at 10:30 AM for their parish's patron saints' day. Services at Sts. Kiril and Metodi Church are primarily conducted in Bulgarian and Church Slavonic. St. John the Evangelist Orthodox Church 501 Moraga Way, Orinda, CA 94563 Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church 1700 School Street Moraga, CA 94556 Saint John the Baptist Russian Orthodox Church 1900 Essex Street, Berkeley, CA 94703   Ways You Can Help Donate Online via Facebook:   For those who use Facebook, you can donate to our Pascha Fundraiser that we recently launched on Facebook. Alternatively, users of Facebook can use the DONATE button located to the right beneath the banner on our monastery's Facebook page to donate throughout the year.   Donate Online via PayPal Giving Fund:   PayPal Giving Fund continues to cover all fees when you donate to nonprofits through the PayPal Giving Fund site. (But please don't just transfer funds directly from your PayPal account to the monastery PayPal account, because it will be treated as a transfer of funds rather than as a donation and will incur fees. Please use the PayPal Giving Fund link posted above instead.)   Donate by Mail: You can also help us financially and make tax-deductible donations the "old-fashioned" way, by sending a check made payable to Holy Cross Monastery to the following address: Holy Cross Monastery 34700 Palomares Road Castro Valley, CA 94552-9624   Matching Grants: Many of our friends and supporters work for companires that offer their employees MATCHING GRANT programs. Holy Cross Orthodox Monastery is registered as an approved charitable nonprofit with Benevity, Inc.and is cleared to receive such MATCHING GRANTS. Many corporations use Benevity to screen nonprofits for approval.  Some of our friends who are employees of Genentech, Google, Apple, Microsoft and others have already succeeded in having their employers give matching grants to our monastery. Some employers that use Benevity to screen nonprofits for eligibility will not give a matching grant to a religious nonprofit unless it has a special project that is secular in nature. One of our benefactors who works for Microsoft recently encountered this obstacle.   Holy Cross Orthodox Monastery therefore established a "Love of Nature" project on the Benevity site that satisfies this requirement. Microsoft has accepted it and will give matching grants for this project. Many other corporate employers offer thei own matching grant programs; e.g. Salesforce and the Lawrence Livermore Lab. Some of our friends have even succeeded in having matching grants issued retroactively; i.e. by providing their company's matching grants program with copies of checks verifying donations made previously in the same year. Please check with your employers' benefits department to see if they offer a MATCHING GRANT program. If so, you may find it easy to DOUBLE YOUR DONATION at no extra cost to you!   So please help us, if you can! Thank you so much for your kind and generous donations! May the Lord reward you all a hundredfold in heavenly and earthly blessings for your kindhearted almsgiving to help our monastery!   Our Monastery's Abbot Is Conducting Services Open to the Public in Fremont from now until May 19, 2024:   Our monastery's abbot, Father Stephen, is serving the Divine Liturgy weekly (and the other services scheduled during Great Lent, Holy Week, and Pascha this year) at nearby St. Christina Orthodox Church - located at 3721 Parish Ave, Fremont, CA 94536. You are welcome to join us for these services at this thriving parish, if you would like to do so. This vibrant parish is largely composed of American converts, who have been flooding into the Orthodox Church in ever-growing numbers in search of authentic, ancient Christianity. The former priest of Saint Christina's was transferred to Colorado in March before the beginning of Great Lent. Their new, permanently assigned parish priest is not scheduled to be installed until the end of May or early June. So our monastery's abbot was asked to serve the liturgical and pastoral needs of this nearby parish in the interim. Otherwise, they would be without a priest during this holiest of seasons, Great Lent and Pascha. Father Stephen will be conducting services there through Sunday, May 19, 2024. Saint Christina's has a wonderful 4-part a cappella choir and its services are conducted entirely in English. Here are the dates and times of the many services that have been scheduled at Saint Christina's during the time our abbot will be serving the parish. Please note that at St. Christina's, we will celebrate the Resurrection on Pascha beginning at 11:30 PM on Saturday night, May 4, 2024. Paschal Matins will follow around midnight and will be  immediately followed by the Paschal Divine Liturgy. Consequently, there will be no Liturgy later in the morning after daylight on May 5th. Saint Christina's does not livestream its services or post videos of them, but the parish posts audio files of homilies (sermons) on its website. Saint Christina's also maintains a Facebook Page with over 6,600 followers and likes! A number of its parishioners have been friends and supporters of our monastery for many years. Father Stephen will be conducting the following services at Saint Christina's in Fremont from now through Pascha: Wednesday, April 24, 6pm   Pre-Sanctified Liturgy Lazarus Saturday, April 27, 9:30am   3rd & 6th Hours & Divine Liturgy Saturday Evening, April 27, 6pm   Palm Sunday Vigil: Entry into Jerusalem Palm Sunday,  April 28, 9:30am   Hours & Festal Liturgy: Palm Sunday (with procession) Great and Holy Week Sunday evening, April 28, 6pm   Bridegroom Matins Monday evening, April 29, 6pm   Bridegroom Matins Tuesday evdning, April 30, 6pm   Bridegroom Matins Wednesday evening, May 1, 6pm   Pre-Sanctified Liturgy Thursday evening, May 2, 6pm   Matins with 12 Gospel Readings Friday afternoon, May 3, 3pm   Great Vespers with Burial of Christ Friday evening, May 3, 6pm   Matins with Lamentations and Bier Procession Saturday morning, May 4, 9:30am   Vesperal Divine Liturgy: Harrowing of Hades  Saturday, May 4, 11:30pm    Nocturnes, Procession, Matins, Hours, and Divine Liturgy for: GREAT AND HOLY PASCHA: THE BRIGHT RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST Videos of Past Liturgies and Sermons at the Monastery We have posted links to past videos of most of our Liturgies and sermons on YouTube for our friends and supporters. You can also follow us on our monastery's Facebook blog        Our Monastery's Abbot Often Serves in Churches throughout the San Francisco Bay Area   During this period of testing when our friends and supporters are being prevented from attending at our monastery services, our abbot has been accepting occasional requests for him to substitute for other priests in order serve their parishes in their absence. Feel free to join Father Stephen whenever he serves in various churches located throughout the San Francisco Bay Area! For instance, he is currently scheduled to serve at the following churches on these future dates: Now through May 19, 2024 (and perhaps early June): Sunday Liturgies and many other services at St. Christina Orthodox Church 3721 Parish Ave, Fremont, CA 94536: Sunday Divine Liturgy weekly at 10:00 AM preceded by the Hours at 9:30 AM Presanctified Liturgy served at 6:00 PM on Wednesdays throughout Lent and Holy Week We will begin to celebrate the Resurrection beginning at 11:30 PM on Saturday night May 4 Paschal Matins with the "Golden Canon" will follow at Midnight Paschal Divine Liturgy will immediately follow the midnight Matins service (so there will be no Liturgy at 10:00AM on Sunday, May 5th). For a complete and detailed schedule of all the services that he will be serving at St. Christina's, see their Parish Calendar Services at St. Christina's are conducted in English. (See the right-hand column for details and links) On May 5 and May 26, 2024: Services at Sts. Kiril and Metodi Bulgarian Orthodox Church, 1551 Shell Ave., Martinez, CA 94553: Sunday, May 5, 2024 - at 1:00 PM Father Stephen will be serving Paschal Vespers for Orthodox Easter - Великден (mostly in Bulgarian and Church Slavonic) at: Sts. Kiril and Metodi Bulgarian Orthodox Church 1551 Shell Ave, Martinez CA 94553 Sunday, May 26, 2024 - 10:30 AM Father Stephen will be serving Divine Liturgy for the parish's patron saints Cyril and Methodius (Кирил и Методий) Services at Sts. Kiril and Metodi are conducted primarily in Bulgarian and Church Slavonic. On Sunday, July 21 and Sunday, July 28: Father Stephen will be serving at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, 1955 Kirker Pass Rd., Concord, CA 94521 Matins (Orthros) at 9:00 AM Divine Liturgy at 10:00 AM Services at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church are conducted in Greek and English.

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