Jonathan Jackson Supports Fundraising for the only Romanian Orthodox Monastery in Ireland
Basilica NewsAgency – Ștefana Totorcea – 20/09/2020
Emmy Award-winning actor and musician Jonathan Jackson, an Orthodox convert, has recently moved to Ireland with the main purpose of supporting fundraising for the “Life-Giving Spring and St Chiarain” Monastery in Shannonbridge. The nuns need to pay the last instalment for the property until December 2020.
“It was actually the central part of making the move. I’ve been hoping and praying for a few years that an Orthodox monastery be founded in Ireland,” declared the actor for TRINITAS, the Television of the Romanian Patriarchate.
“I humbly believe that Orthodoxy deserves to be experienced here, in Ireland.” And “one of the most important ways they do that is by encountering healthy monasteries,” he added. “I think monasteries are vitally important. They just offer healing.”
On social media, the actor calls for donations for the Romanian monastery.
“Jonathan is wonderful, he has a big heart. Both him and his family. It is not the first time that he helps us,” said Nun Iosifia from the Shannonbridge Monastery (opening photo).
Last week, on September 9th, the monastery celebrated its second patronal feast: St Chiarain of Clonmacnoise, a local saint from the 6th century.
Fathers Raul Simion and Constantin Uncu from the Romanian parishes in Dublin and Father Tudor Ghiță from the Galway Parish participated. They were joined by fathers Ioannis Pantelidis and Thomas Carroll from the Greek Orthodox Church in Dublin, close friends of the monastery.
It was important for the nuns to have the Divine Liturgy officiated on the saint’s day this year, especially since this year they celebrated their main patronal feast in full pandemic lockdown, says Nun Iosifia.
The good part of the pandemic for them was that in the summer they managed to get a new discount on the final price of the monastery property, which they have to pay in full by the end of the year. The final price is 260,000 Euros, of which last year the monastery paid 100,000.
For the rest of 160,000 Euros, the nuns organized an online fundraiser on the GoFundMe platform, where half of the sum has been raised so far.
The fundraiser has been recently announced in the online media across the ocean. There are 80,000 Euros left to be raised by December.
The “Life-Giving Spring and St Chiarain” Monastery in Shannonbridge was established in 2019 with the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Iosif of Western and Meridional Europe. The monastery is also dedicated to all Celtic Saints of Ireland (the second Sunday after Pentecost) and to the Holy Prophet Daniel and the Three Holy Youths: Ananias, Azarias, and Misael (December 17).
For donations
From Romania
Name: Marina Brolla
IBAN account: RO69INGB0000999904615996 (for RON)
IBAN account: RO93INGB0000999909511542 (for EURO)
Bank: INGB CENTRALA
SWIFT: INGBROBU
BIC: INGB
Payment details: For monastery in Ireland
From Ireland
Beneficiary: Romanian Orthodox Church in Ireland
Beneficiary address: St John the Baptist Missionary Centre, Drimnagh Castle, Long Mile Road, Dublin 12
Bank: Bank of Ireland
Bank address: 6 Lower O’Connell Street, Dublin 1
BIC: BOFIIE2D
IBAN account: IE98BOFI 9000 3324 4356 07
From other countries
Online payment by card on the GoFundMe platform:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/an-orthodox-monastery-in-ireland
Contact
Nun Iosifia: m.iosifia@yahoo.co.uk
Tel: 00353894831802
Web: orthodoxmonasteryireland.ie
