At the end of December 2016, on the eve of the Nativity of Christ, Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Lavra in the Donetsk Oblast of Ukraine once more received financial aid for housing refugees from the Fund for Assistance to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and from the Russian-American Cultural Society of Cleveland, OH. 

As reported on the official website of the Svyatogorsk Lavra:

This is not the first year that the Fund for Assistance has offered aid to the Svyatogorsk Lavra and to the involuntarily displaced persons (IDPs) who have found refuge here. The first donations from this Fund came in 2014, and then again in 2015. A portion of the funds we received this year, at the end of 2016, were put toward purchasing essential medicinal supplies to meet the medical needs of the refugees, and also became a palpable help in resolving the financial difficulties facing the monastery, which have arisen in ongoing heating season. Inasmuch as the cost of electricity has increased threefold, making payments on the rapidly increasing bills has become a pressing concern for the Svyatogorsk Lavra. The monastery was not prepared for the long-term housing of this number of people, and so any contribution to the resolution of the monastery’s problems in housing the IDPs is substantial and much appreciated.

The Svyatogorsk Lavra, in the persons of her deputy abbot, Metropolitan Arsenius of Svyatogorsk and the brethren, as well as all of the IDPs who have found refuge within the monastery’s walls, express their sincere gratitude to the Fund for Assistance to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia for the help they have provided in caring for the refugees over the course of 2014-2016:

"We thank the All-Gracious God, that in these extremely difficult times for our monastery, He comforts us through your brotherly love and support! Truly, it is God’s mercy to behold the active commiseration of our brothers in Christ in the calamities that have been visited upon our homeland and flock. In this troubled time, the participation of the Fund for Assistance to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia is particularly dear to us, and we sincerely thanks you for the prayerful support and greatly needed financial aid you have given to the Svyatogorsk Lavra! We sincerely treasure and will always remember that your hearts ache for our monastery; that you have co-suffered with the people who have fallen into misfortunes and have found refuge here; that you have responded with tenderness to the sorrows that have befallen the Ukrainian land.

"…The brethren and refugees are sincerely grateful to everyone whose merciful hearts responded to our plight, and who in troubled times came to our aid. King Solomon himself said: ‘He that hath pity on the poor shall himself be blessed.’ May the Lord be merciful unto all those who perform acts of charity.

"We wish you and your collaborators love and peace and wellbeing. We pray to our Most Holy Lady Theotokos, that for all of the good deeds done unto her holy habitation, she might be for you and for all Christians of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia a speedy Intercessor and Helper, protecting them from every evil by her precious omophorion!

"With love in the Lord, Metropolitan Arsenius of Svyatogorsk, vicar of the Diocese of Donetsk, deputy abbot of Holy Dormition Svyatogorsky Lavra, with the brethren and refugees."

svlavra.church.ua