California

Nestled in the heart of Calistoga is the Holy Assumption Monastery, a long standing Orthodox monastery that has been an active part of the community since 1947. OCCIF provided a loan so that Holy Assumption could have a new residence house to provide a home for the nuns now and into the future “When [the nuns of Holy Assumption] got here the original Saint Nicholas house was ready for honorable retirement,” said Mother Melania of Holy Assumption. “We talked to various people over the years and it was going to cost somewhere between $200,000 to $300,000 to maybe get 20 more years of [use]. We thought that doesn’t make sense for the future sisters so we started looking into tearing it down and building the new family house.” After receiving a capital improvement loan from OCCIF and after many months of work, the new Saint Nicholas house is now fully operational. The residence has made a major improvement in the lives of the Nuns who reside at Holy Absolution. “Besides creating a piece of the monastery property, the new Saint Nicholas house is handicap accessible,” noted Mother Macrina. The new Saint Nicholas house features ramps into the main building and an elevator to the second floor. “We knew that we needed Saint Nicholas house to accommodate nuns who either had long time term disabilities or maybe who have accidents,” said Mother Macrina. This new home helps the Holy Assumption monastery continue their vital work in the community, from providing services to teaching students to community outreach. Working with OCCIF was a positive experience for Holy Assumption. “One of the benefits of working with OCCIF was knowing that we were working with people who were invested in seeing us succeed,” notes Mother Macrina. “That’s a huge difference from working with a traditional bank.”

OCCIF helped provide a cooperative funding program to assist St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral in Santa Rosa, California, by completing its new Parish Hall. The facility consists of a large multi-purpose dining and meeting space, full commercial kitchen, and bookstore. Included in this project was a free-standing general storage building and related site improvements. “The way I look at [OCCIF], it helps build the Church – not just a single parish benefits, but the entire church benefits,” said Father Lawrence Margitich, Pastor of St. Seraphim. “So if [OCCIF] helps a parish in, say, Seattle, it is going to help Santa Rosa too. Because if one [Orthodox Church] is getting stronger, then we are all getting stronger.”

OCCIF worked with the Monastery of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco in Manton, California to refinance the Monastery’s first mortgage. The Monastery was facing a major balloon payment and possible foreclosure. With OCCIF‘s help, the Monastery now has a new loan, a dramatically improved interest rate, and is on the way to one day owning their own property. “We tried to get funding through the convention methods but were turned down,” said Hieromonk Innocent, the Superior at the Monastery of St. John. “What OCCIF did for us was they were able to find people that believe in the Monastery and wanted to invest in it. Now we have much better terms and we have a way to pay off the [loan] principal.”

St. Raphael of Brooklyn Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church in Thousand Palms, California, had spent many years of looking for a home. Over the years Father David Kruse and his parish had been homeless – at one point even using the chapel in a funeral home as worship space. OCCIF worked with Father Kruse and his parish council to come up with a plan and funding that allowed them to purchase a building and provide a permanent location for the church. “We had been a functioning parish for sixteen years, but no one was willing to lend to us,” said Father David. “OCCIF didn’t require us to put up our houses as collateral [like] the other lenders. So there is trust on both sides, which is what the Church is all about.”

Located in northern California, Ss. Cyril and Methodius Orthodox Mission in Chico, California, is a testament to the devotion of Orthodoxy in the United States. The mission originally started by several Orthodox families who wanted a church closer to home. Over the years it continued to develop.OCCIF worked with Father Ian Shipley and his mission’s financial group to refinance the loan on the mission and open the way towards future growth.