Culture Connection
Friends of Mount Sinai Monastery
The wonderful treasure St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai needs financial support for its daily maintenance. A group of volunteers have banded together to create a not-for-profit foundation to increase awareness to this UNESCO Heritage Site titled Friends of Mount Sinai Monastery. Our readers have read our post, The Ungraspable Mystery: St. Katherine’s Monastery in the Sinai Desert, and are encouraged to spread to word about this foundation in an effort to raise donations for the monastery. It is a living miracle to tradition that after 11 centuries and counting, St. Katherine’s has kept the incessant flame of Orthodox prayer and asceticism alive and unbroken. While Prince Charles has founded an international foundation for St. Katherine’s, the funds from that foundation are to preserve its library and collections such as the iconography. It is not enough to fill the gap for its daily upkeep.
Here are some more details from the initiative from the About page:
Friends of Mount Sinai Monastery (FMSM) was founded in response to requests by many people desirous of financially supporting the work of St. Catherine’s Monastery, who along with countless others have found its spiritual tradition to be a source of joy and inspiration. FMSM is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) charity, so contributions to the Monastery donated through FMSM qualify for income tax deduction to the fullest extent allowed by the law.
The FMSM board and staff consist entirely of volunteers. The board includes, among others, a retired CEO of a successful Silicon Valley start-up company, a physician in the biopharma industry with a Stanford MBA and experience as a CFO, and a Monastic associated with the Monastery.
Though Egypt’s new government has worked hard to restore stability to the country, the economic situation of the South Sinai in particular continues to be tenuous in the aftermath of previous political upheaval. There is also an ongoing campaign by a small party of extremists challenging the right of the ancient Greek Orthodox Monastery to exist.
Friends of Mount Sinai Monastery is focused on supporting the daily operations, projects, and continued existence of the Monastery, whose singular example serves as an inspiration to those of all faith backgrounds.
There is also an international Saint Catherine Foundation, founded by Prince Charles of Great Britain, but its focus is on conservation of Saint Catherine’s extensive collection of ancient manuscripts, which is second only to the Vatican’s. It is not equipped to handle numerous smaller donations for the daily operation of the Monastery. Hence, Friends of Mount Sinai was started as a parallel organization.
More info at www.mountsinaimonastery.org
