Wayne, West Virginia, December 31, 2025
Photo: Holy Cross Monastery
The brotherhood of Holy Cross Monastery served its first Divine Liturgy in its new church on Sunday, December 29, marking a milestone after five years of construction that began when ground was broken on November 9, 2020.
The foundation of the church was blessed by Metropolitan Nicholas on May 24, 2023.
Abbot Gabriel announced the achievement in a video message to supporters, describing the occasion as “very auspicious” liturgically, falling on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers of Christ. The brotherhood moved into the church on Saturday and celebrated their first service the following morning.
The new church came to fruition through the vision and guidance of the monastery’s former abbot, Schema-Archimandrite Panteleimon, Fr. Gabriel said. “Through his many years of dedicated prayer, labors, love and spiritual care for this monastery and for those who come here, through his vision, through his guidance, [he] brought this beautiful church into reality,” Abbot Gabriel said, asking supporters to continue remembering the former abbot in their prayers, “that God will give him rest from his labors and reward him for the many labors that he undertook.”
Work on the church continues, with a temporary iconostasis currently in place while plans for a permanent iconostasis will be finalized within the next few days, according to Abbot Gabriel. The monastery's next priorities include principal liturgical furniture such as the holy table and prothesis table, completing the iconostasis, and installing the cupolas to complete the church's domes, which they hope to finish in the coming weeks.
Abbot Gabriel thanked benefactors for their generous support over the years. “I don’t think any of us thought that it would take five years of work to get to this point,” he said. “But God’s time is not our time. And we know that he arranged everything for the best, for our own salvation and for the good of the brotherhood.”
The monastery invites supporters to make a pilgrimage to pray in the new church.
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