The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

Earthquake in Mexico:
Archimandrite Nektarios and the Mission survive: the Monastery continues to struggle

Mission survives 7.4 earthquake, struggles to go on

A powerful 7.4 earthquake shook Mexico on Tuesday spared the small ROCOR mission in Mexico City, headed by Archimdnrite Nektariy (Haji-Petropoulos).

�Thanks to God nothing very serious happened,� wrote the abbot to the Fund for Assistance in an email. �

�All our religious items fell to the ground, icons, bookshelves, lampadas, candelabra, furniture, kitchenware etc.� Lots of broken glass and loose bricks everywhere; the major damage was in the cupola.� Phone lines, Internet and electricity were interrupted for many hours. But all our parishioners are fine, just very scared.� We have already had 15 aftershocks.��

Holy Trinity Skete was established in 2007 and swiftly became the spiritual heart of the Russian Diaspora, which serves the needs of local Russians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Moldavians and Mexicans.� The monastery is very active in the local community: it provides medical and psychological aid in Russian to alcoholics and drug addicts, domestic violence victims; provides legal assistance to Russian women in case of a divorce from their Mexican husbands and questions of child custody; assists the needy and the unemployed.� They teach the fundamentals of the Orthodox faith to their parishioners; accept pilgrims from all over the country.�

The monastery has always experienced great financial hardship, but has never recovered from the loss of their bakery after the outbreak of swine-flu in 2009 forced it to close down for several weeks.

For the past several years the monastery has survived on the abbot�s salary as a professor t a local university, and the three brethren�s�constant toil as they engage in different projects to benefit the skete and the community.� Their current project is centered around an apiary and the hope of selling honey and making their own candles.� They are now trying to scrape enough money to pay off the skete�s mounting debts as well as buy a candle-making machine. The difficult situation is exacerbated by Fr Nektariy�s constant health problems and the inability to pay for health insurance.�

In this difficult moment for the monastery, we ask you to please help them survive and continue to spread Orthodoxy in Mexico.� Ninety eight percent of parishioners are Russian women married to Mexicans, who thanks to Fr. Nektariy�s missionary work, are converting and bringing their families to church.�

Please donate now to help save Holy Trinity Skete!