In the past two years, Holy Trinity Monastery has addressed the important work of restoring its church cupolas and outdoor mosaics.

This work has been met with considerable obstacles and financial difficulties. Most notably, one cupola was accidently taken down and the installation fee of two mosaics were estimated to cost as much as the mosaics themselves.

Problems from these two separate projects have occurred simultaneously, placing a strain on our ability to complete them successfully. We are appealing to you to assist in funding the expensive engineering and installation costs of the cupolas and mosaics for the beautification of our monastery.

How we made the decision to replace the cupolas and mosaics

The cupolas on our church were originally installed over 70 years ago. They were handmade out of wood by the Brotherhood. In the past decade, however, the crosses on the cupolas began to lean and shift out of place. An initial inspection showed deterioration of the wood due to water damage with one cross leaning over to such an extent that we feared it would soon fall off the roof.

Our first attempt at stabilizing the crosses involved adding chains, a traditional adornment found on the roofs of many Russian churches. Unfortunately, this did not stop the shifting of the crosses, and we decided to do a more thorough investigation with the help of specialists.

We opened the cupolas and discovered that five of them were in an advanced stage of decay from the inside out. The monastery’s Spiritual Council met and decided to replace these five cupolas for the safety of our visitors and the preservation of our cathedral.

In late 2022 we hired a firm to construct five new cupolas out of fiberglass. At that time, donors were generous in helping us raise the materials cost of the cupolas. We could not have expected that three years of time would pass until the cupolas were finally installed because of delays and other complications.

While the cupolas were being constructed, we had to address another urgent issue: two of our outdoor painted frescoes were fading due to the harsh Upstate New York winter climate. They were fading so rapidly that, without an intervention, they would disappear entirely.

The first damaged fresco was the Old Testament Trinity, located above the main entrance of the Church. The second was the Resurrection of Christ on the eastern side of the bell tower.

We began to consider replacing the frescoes with mosaics because of our experience with three other outdoor mosaics at the monastery:

1. Saint Michael the Archangel on the left corner of the main monastery building.

2. The Descent of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles on the western side of the belltower.

3. The Mother of God “Tenderness” at St. Seraphim’s Chapel located to the left of the church.

All three mosaics appear as if they haven’t aged at all since we commissioned them. Mosaics are so durable that even some from 5th-century Byzantium have survived to our time. A decision was made to replace the two fading frescoes with mosaic copies of the original icons.

In 2024, we commissioned Ecclesia Designers based in Florida. Like with the cupolas, we reached out to our community and raised the funds for the creation of the mosaics. While they were being made, we were dismayed that installation costs were more expensive than the actual creation of the mosaics.

"The fear of God inspires us to maintain and enhance all aspects of Church life and all that is entrusted to us to continue the mission of the Church to save souls."

Why is it so important to replace our cupolas and mosaics?

The architecture of our church is done in the “tented roof” style, which is traditionally designed to enhance awareness of the divine through beautiful visual aesthetics.

For the faithful arriving to worship, sight of the church is meant to lift their spirits as they make the sign of the cross and begin to pray. Everything related to the church building, including the cupolas and external mosaics, is meant to inspire and elevate the spiritual feelings of worshippers.

Some may ask why our church needs to have so many onion-shaped cupolas that are significantly costly. Wouldn’t it be more cost effective to have a simple flat roof?

The importance of the typical Russian onion-shaped dome originates from the desire to evoke a candle flame. Inside the church, we present candles as an offering to God, a sign of our commitment to prayer and the spiritual health of those whom we love. Over the centuries, the Church has incorporated this candle offering into the architecture, so that as your eyes catch sight of the domes while walking towards a church, your soul prepares to beseech God for His help and Grace.

Mosaics have a similar purpose. As icons they inspire prayer while embellishing and enhancing the beauty of the church. Many worshipers are not aware that the Church, through its traditional features, knows how to spiritually open up the heart and soul, without conscious awareness. But when those features are damaged, such as in the case of our faded mosaics, the spiritual benefit is diminished.

Severe and unexpected challenges we have faced

The first problem we encountered was a long 18-month delay in gilding our cupolas. During those months, the cupolas sat in our monastery garage.

Then we were surprised to learn that the price we had agreed to did not include the cost of hiring two special cranes to lift the cupolas onto the roof. This new cost came to be $15,000.

Since there are so few contractors who are qualified to install cupolas, especially those who are willing to travel to our rural location, we continued in spite of the delays so that the project could be completed.

When our contractor came late this summer with the two cranes, their first task was to remove the five old cupolas out of the ten total cupolas we have, but a different cupola was mistakenly removed, which was located over the altar.

We inspected this cupola carefully and found that it also had significant decay that could eventually result in water leaking onto the altar itself during the Diving Liturgy.

The Spiritual Council met and decided that we should proceed with also replacing this cupola, which meant an additional cost of approximately $20,000. Despite the expense, we believe this complication was providential in preventing a future catastrophe.

Thankfully, the contractor agreed to install the replacement at no charge. The damaged cupola has since been replaced by a steel cover.

The difficulties we faced with the mosaics were more discouraging. The church and eastern side of the bell tower were installed with surfaces that could only hold the weight of frescoes, not mosaics that weigh 1,100 and 800 pounds, respectively. These structures were not originally built with mosaics in mind.

After consulting with an engineering firm that specializes in such complicated projects, we were told that we need to reinforce both platforms with steel and concrete in a multi-phase engineering and construction project that was estimated to cost more than the mosaics themselves --- approximately $115,000.

In spite of these exorbitant costs, our two alternatives were to use frescoes, which would fade again in a short amount of time, or replace them with nothing at all. In the end, we made the decision to commit ourselves to the mosaics that, while expensive, are best for the monastery and those who visit it.

Our mosaic artist is aware of our structural challenges and is communicating with our engineers to ensure the job will be completed by the summer of 2026. We plan and manage monastery projects as efficiently as we can, but unfortunately significant problems arise, especially for specialized projects that involve complex engineering requirements and heavy machinery.

Are we being too extravagant in our goals?

Some may wonder if our projects are excessive or superfluous, or if our aims could be more modest. For the Orthodox Church, however, we are struggling to meet a basic standard.

Those who have recently gone on pilgrimage to Russia and have seen the major renovations at Pskov and Optina monasteries, along with the innumerable city churches that are being built and restored to the finest standard, will understand that our aims are careful and prudent.

We wish we could more generously embellish our church, but if anything, we are barely meeting basic standards because of financial strain.

Pskov-Caves Monastery in Pechory, Russia

Please help us finish the installation of our cupolas and mosaics

Thankfully, most of the work for the cupola and mosaic projects is done, and we see the end in sight, but we urgently need your financial help to complete all installations.

As everyone experiences daily, prices have gone up drastically. We also are not immune to rising costs, and have held many meetings where we deliberated the raising of our own prices for products such as candles, books, and honey. Unfortunately, when complex projects have unexpected problems, the costs increase significantly.

For example, if you’ve been to our Divine Liturgy on Sunday or on Feast Days, you have seen that we ask for donations through a collection plate. The funds we receive from one month of our collection plate are enough only to fill the heating oil tank in our church building one time, which is just one building out of nearly 40 that are on the monastery grounds, many of which are quite large and require heating throughout the winter.

We do not raise nearly enough money through our collection plate or sales of our products to serve the basic needs of our monastics, professors, seminarians, parishioners, and beloved pilgrims. We are exceedingly thankful for all donations, whether $1 or $1,000, and we kindly ask you today to give as much as you are able.

For the cupolas, we need to raise $35,000 due to new, unexpected fees ($15,000 for surprise installation costs and $20,000 to replace a damaged cupola).

For the mosaics, we need to raise an estimated $115,000 ($37,500 is due to preliminary engineering costs and $77,500 is for the actual construction and reinforcement using concrete and steel).

In total, we earnestly need to raise $150,000. This sum is substantial and a burden for our community, but we humbly ask for your help in contributing this money for the endurance of our monastery, for the benefit of our Mother Church, and for the glory of God.

Please make yourself a part of this effort through your financial support. Click below to make a tax-deductible donation by credit card or check...

Sponsor the installation of a cupola or fresco

If you would like to make a larger contribution, please consider sponsoring a cupola installation for $5,000 or mosaic installation for $25,000. As a small token of our gratitude, we will do lifetime commemorations of you and your loved ones at every Divine Liturgy (up to 20 Orthodox names). We will contact you soon after the donation is made for details.

• Cupola Jordanville - available

• Cupola Novgorod - available

• Cupola Voronezh - available

• Cupola Kazan - available

• Cupola Chernigov - available

• Trinity Mosaic (Church Building) - available

• Resurrection Mosaic (Belltower Building) - available

"We pray that God will sanctify the beauty and love of his house, because if that beauty is neglected, sanctification will be lost."

This project will impact thousands of pilgrims

Ultimately, we are responsible for maintaining the beauty of God’s house, a place of worship for thousands of pilgrims to the monastery.

These expensive but important projects are necessary to maintain the spiritual tranquility of our visitors, far away from the noise and temptations of the world. Any lack of care we show about the exterior of our church will surely be felt by our pilgrims.

We are reaching out to you today for support so that all visitors can be inspired by the grace of God that dwells here and will continue to do so for many years.

"For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love which you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises."

Hebrews 8:10-12

We extend our deepest gratitude to all supporters and benefactors for supporting the monastery. On behalf of all the monastics of Holy Trinity Monastery, and our Abbot, His Grace Bishop Luke, may God reward you for your generosity!

For questions about our fundraising project, please email contact@jordanville.org or call 315-858-3817.