Holy Virgin Protection Cathedral
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia
Des Plaines, IL USA
Letter concerning building situation

Dear Parishioners,

 

As you know, for the past several years we have been in the process of building a community center, which would include classrooms for our school. Initial construction began in 2007 but a number of problems developed. During the inspection, serious errors were discovered. The walls were built without internal reinforcement in what amounted to an act of malfeasance. The church began legal proceedings to pursue remediation.

After a lengthy process over several years that involved consultation on the part of an outside professional engineering firm to provide evidence that the construction was faulty and to propose a plan for remediation, the evidence was presented in court and the church was awarded a favorable judgment. However, given that many of the involved parties are now bankrupt, the settlement was not enough to cover the costs of proceeding with the repairs.

Our Russian Orthodox community is alive and well as evidenced by the numbers of young people in the church today. The St. Jonah School operates on Saturdays and enrolls over 100 children to study the Russian language, culture and the Law of God. Without a permanent space, they set up classrooms every week in the parish hall and have to run two sessions to be able to accommodate the numbers of students and classes. The numbers of students continues to grow throughout the year. Without adequate space, this cannot continue to expand.

The bookstore, which supplies spiritual literature for many who visit our cathedral, continue to operate out of the foyer of the parish hall. Their beautiful displays deserve a more permanent space.

We must now move forward on work to fix the walls and complete the building. This requires planning and financial support. We are currently in the process of outlining the stages of work to be done. We appeal to you to assist on planning, fund-raising and budgeting committees, or in any way that you are able.

 

Parish council


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