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Constantin AlecseD). AMF Estate vs. Building Project
Presentation at the Episcopate Council Meeting, May 13, 2021 A – THE GOLDEN ERA -- BEFORE THE FALL OF COMMUNISM Meet the pastor – My name is (Fr) Constantin Alecse. I was born and educated in Romania.
History of Holy Trinity Church and its Pastors The Church was first established in 1939. After the church was acquired from the Episcopalians, and over the years, a parish hall and Rectory were also built. In 2018, Holy Trinity celebrated it’s 80th anniversary. During all these years, it has been served by 6 priests: Very Rev. Fathers Martin Ionescu (1939-1947), Gregory Coste (1948-1957), Victor Barbulescu (1957-1969), Anchidim Useriu (1960-1961), my predecessor, Richard Grabowski (1971-1982), and followed by myself, Constantin Alecse (1982 to present). In 1982 there were only 2 Romanian Orthodox Churches in Southern California: Holy Trinity under ROEA, and Holy Archangels in Torrance, under the Romanian Patriarchate (which many Romanians referred to as “the communist church”). The Building Project: The need for a new church and facilities In 1982, shortly after the time of my arrival in Los Angeles, there was an influx of many newcomers from Romania who came to this country as political refugees. They found our Church and considered our community as a “Little Romania”; a small representation of the country they left behind. The church, however, was physically too small, and our parish facilities old and outdated. Therefore, during the next 5 years, 1982-1987, discussions took place at almost all the parish yearly general assemblies, regarding the need to build a bigger church to accommodate our growing community. During the years 1986-1987 the parish council analyzed various options regarding the initiation of a new building project. A final decision was eventually reached: The purchase of a vacant parcel of raw land to develop into the proposed project. At the February 1987 General Assembly, at the recommendation of the parish council, it was unanimously decided to call a Special Assembly to discuss and formally decide on the recommended Building Project. B – POST-COMMUNISM, BUT BEFORE THE 2007-2009 FINANCIAL CRISIS The New Building Project Approved & Vacant Land Purchased A building project for a new church and social center was approved by a Special General Assembly on June 14, 1987. The Assembly was approved by the Episcopate. A Building Committee was formed, on February 14, 1988, entrusted with full powers to consider various aspects and options for the financing and the building of the future project. On October 14, 1987 - The Holy Trinity church purchased some vacant land in Sunland, County of Los Angeles, for the amount of $230,000. The property had no utilities or utility lines connected (power, water, gas, sewers, etc.), which according to building committee studies would have cost in excess of $360,000 in 1988. The total estimated project cost (1988): between $6 million to $7 million dollars. The CUP – Conditional Use Permit & The Public Hearings From the very beginning, it was an uphill battle to obtain the CUP. In order to obtain the necessary permits, the Church had to go through 4 separate Public Hearings during the time period Dec.4, 1987-July 26, 1988. Each hearing was individually difficult and grueling, with more and more conditions being imposed upon us as we went further through the process. Finally, by the time of the last Public Hearing, the Building Project had ended up with 21 harsh building conditions we would be forced to adhere to. During the almost 2 years of Public Hearings, the Council organized various fundraising events; mostly appeals for donations during social events: monthly dinners, picnics, etc. Despite the great efforts the council undertook, the donations just did not come into the Building Trust, at the levels that we’d anticipated, or that were required. Some of our newcomers/refugees were working hard to establish themselves financially, while others were just working to survive. Many of “the old timers” who were already financially better off helped with the building project where they could, but as they were of advanced age, they slowly began passing on to meet their Maker. PART III – The structure of the Romanian American community after 1989 Changes after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, 1989 In hindsight, the end of 1989 was a turning point for our community, as well as the church Building Project itself. The events of 1989, the fall of communism in Europe, would eventually affect the whole world, including Romania, as it was part of the former Eastern European communist bloc. Those events began the change of the demographic structure of our Romanian Community in California. Many Romanians returned back to Romania, while some of the others moved to other more prosperous and less income-taxed states, like Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, etc. In addition, a wave of new Romanian church communities were beginning to spring up everywhere. Most of these were established with the purposes of cultural exchange and the tightening of their roots to Romania. Thus, during this same period of time, the church membership and financial supporters of the Holy Trinity Church drastically lessened in number, due to the fact that so many of these new Romanian Churches were being established here, in Southern California. Some of these were within our Diocese: Anaheim, Palm Springs, Pomona, San Diego; others under various Jurisdictions: Two (2) in the Bulgarian Diocese: St. John the Baptist in Hollywood & St Andrew, North Hollywood; One (1) under the Missionary Archdiocese, The Romanian Patriarchate: Elevation of the Holy Cross, in Upland; One (1), St. Patrick, under the Antiochians. Each of these newly founded Romanian Churches, depending on the location they were established, served in some way to diminish the central role that our church had previously enjoyed, and ultimately, took away many of our former members and supporters. Due to a couple of lawsuits (2) against the Holy Trinity (1996-1998), the Parish Assembly decided to hire an attorney to establish “The Holy Trinity Building Trust Fund”, on May 31, 1998, in order to protect its assets from potential future lawsuits. I am not sure if notice was sent the Episcopate Office, but I vaguely recall having discussed this matter with my Hierarch, at around those times. In hindsight, considering all of the above and other factors, it become obvious that, after 1989, the church’s new proposed building project was no longer financially feasible, nor was it a necessity for our recently downsized and continuously shrinking community. Along the same lines, it is also important to mention the fact that the Sunland property which we had acquired was in a far more remote, less populous location, in a mainly industrial / commercial suburb of Los Angeles, far away from the excellent central urban location our current church property now enjoys. The building project put on hold for 17 years (1990-2007) During the period of time from 1990-2007 the church lost almost all of the original members of the building committee due to several common and uncommon events. For instance, in 1994 California was hit by the Northridge Earthquake. As a result, a few of the main financial donors left California for good: Jon Cepoi and Nick Prepchuck, for example. Others passed away, like Mircea Popa +1995, Traian Pincu +1999, Nicolae Olar +2007 (who was one of the main benefactors of the building project). In another case, Joe Oros +2012, after his wife Betty passed on +2001, lost all interest in the building project and resigned. Also, Miron Bonca, one of the former driving forces of the project, relocated to Orange County and become an active member in the Anaheim Church instead. Others, meanwhile, realizing that the Building project was not longer feasible, simply just resigned from the project, but remained members of the church: Maria Pincu (2003), Grigore Birtoc (2005), Dorian & Agripina Serban (2005) The new Building Committee, made out of mostly newcomers, tried to act as a direct replacement of the former committee, but did not have the clout to raise substantial funds required for the building project to move forward. Even under such difficult circumstances, however, the parish still struggled to raise funds for the building program. However, the enthusiasm was just not there anymore, and there was not much success in raising any substantial funds for the project. Almost all reserves allocated for the Building Project were eventually spent on civil engineering, architectural plans, and the like, since these were things that were absolutely necessary for obtaining the CUP. It is also worth noting that, in 2006, the church, even while under the representation of the “Law Office of Steven Sapera”, was met more and more obstacles from the Los Angeles City Hall in obtaining and retaining the CUP. PART IV – Investments and Changes brought on by the Financial Crisis, 2007 Generating income and building funds through investments In the years just before the financial crisis, a gentleman by the name of Christian Vahab, an inventor and scientist well-known in the Romanian community as a successful businessman, proposed to the building committee an ambitious and intriguing investment opportunity. It involved the up-and-coming field of green and sustainable energy, and it had to do with an energy thorium battery and generators, to which he owned the IP (intellectual property) and was in the process of developing. Since Mr. Vahab was already a well-known member of our community, (member of the parish, president of “Viitorul Roman” Society, financial advisor to the parish council), and in light of his tight relationship with many of our long-standing members, (such as Traian and Maria Pincu, who were his wedding Godparents, as well as previous private investors in his enterprises; same with Jon and Stella Cepoi, Miron Bonca and Miron Butariu), Mr. Vahab’s proposals automatically enjoyed a high level of seriousness and consideration with our people. In 2006, Mr. Vahab explained to us that his intentions were charitable in nature, and he wanted to help churches and other not-for-profit organizations through his “clean energy alternative” inventions that he’d developed, based on something called a “thorium” battery. He had taken into account the Building Project fundraising we’d discussed earlier, and had thought of an ambitious plan to simultaneously develop his own business and company, as well as helping our Churches in America, as well as Romania, to become energy efficient and independent, based on the latest cutting edge technologies of the next generation of clean energy industries and products. Mr. Vahab proposed a joint-venture agreement between the HTROC and his newly-formed company, whereby, we would help him with the funding for the development of his battery prototype, and then install this energy device at our church and other Romanian Episcopate churches. This collaboration was meant to be on a sort of trial basis, in order to gain the necessary data and a track record of performance for his invention, so that it could later be brought to the mass market, and other similar products and services would be licensed and sold from it. I took this proposal to the building committee and select members of the parish council to hear their thoughts on his proposal, and the response from our community was a very positive one. The financial rewards seemed significant, especially in comparison to the small sums that were necessary to build the prototype. The ownership shares (500,000) that were allocated to the church had a minimum value, based solely on his intellectual property (patents, etc) of $500,000, but once brought to market, could easily be 10-20X that amount (i.e. $5,000,000-$10,000,000). That was almost the exact estimated amount of money that our church needed in order to fulfill its dream of accomplishing our proposed building project. The prospect of acquiring “Electroputere” in Romania, a historical opportunity Then, in mid-2006, an opportunity arose where Romanian Electricity Industrial giant, “Electroputere” (that was at that time a state-owned enterprise of the Romanian Government) had been slated to become a privatized company. Mr. Vahab became very engaged with this potential acquisition deal because it (“Electroputere”) represented an already existing infrastructure and distribution network that could have significantly cut both the financial costs as well as time (years of development) on his own inventions and technologies. Mr. Vahab considered that his own clean energy patents and business experience in this industry would be a good fit with an already-established eastern European company of this type that was looking to modernize itself and break into the green energy economy. Unfortunately, at that time, we could not help him financially, because most of the church’s funds had to stay in the savings account for architectural plans, and other documentation, as well as City Hall fees to obtain the CUP. But I thought that I could personally still be of use to Mr. Vahab by reaching out to my former classmate and school colleague, the recently-installed Patriarch Daniel. The hope was, that with the charitable focus of this deal, the Patriarch may have had some clout that he could use to help expedite the way forward for Mr. Vahab. Perhaps he may have also been interested in participating in a pilot program that could have helped many poor Romanian churches which were in need of a modernized energy infrastructure (in the same way as we were discussing of doing here, in the USA). Unfortunately, the deal fell through, and the contract for privatization was awarded to another bidder. Despite this setback, on our end though, we were still working to structure a deal with the previously agreed terms, so our church could gain ownership of 500,000 shares in PAESI in exchange for help with funding and deploying Mr. Vahab’s prototype energy generation product. Then, several months later, in late 2006, in a fortunate turn of events, Mr. Vahab approached us once again with the news that a previous bidder for “Electroputere” had been dropped from consideration, and that he had been re-invited to participate in the auction process once again. Since the holidays were upon us, and time was of the essence in this deal, the Building Committee decided, rather than to risk losing this deal once again, to take out a short-term loan against the church property. In order to be a part of such an unexpected opportunity, the Committee decided, at the beginning of 2007, to accept Pekeer’s invitation to participate in the deal, by taking a short term loan, for one year, as an “investment seed” in Peeker Corporation, money that was needed in the bidding process submission of the complete technical package (Mapa cu documentatia tehnica), and the Proof of Funds. As for the Capital, Peeker was in a Joint Venture with a big Investment Company in the Middle East, which would have come up with the capital to acquire Electroputere. That Middle Eastern firm was represented by a Dr. Salah A. Rustum, a diplomat, and a PH.D in aerodynamics engineering, who began working closely with Mr. Vahab. While Mr. Vahab was abroad, the manufacturing of the thorium generator prototype continued as planned. At one point, Mr. Vahab even showed us a video with “work in progress” of his new inventions. An important side note: As far as I vaguely recall, regarding this PAESI (Peeker Atomic Energy System, Inc.) venture, Abbott Irineu, the ROEA Auxiliary Bishop at that time, was involved somewhat, or at least informed of, this particular arrangement according to the PAESI Introduction and Business Plan, herewith attached. Those documents were meant to be an official proposal to the newly elected Patriarch of Romania, HE Dr. Daniel (Ciobotea). C – The Years 2007-2009: The Financial Crisis and other difficulties and challenges As I explained before, during the years of 2005-2006, I was the main driving force of the Building Project. The new and inexperienced Building Committee was eager to help, but they relied mostly on my experience and authority within the community. There were some suggestions from some other business people in community with regards to raising funds for the project, but almost all of their ideas dealt with using money for “investments” in order to raise funds. The only problem with that approach was that the church had very little money available for investment purposes. Our people, and I myself, were very eager to build that new church; but… we just didn’t have the finances. Therefore, when Christian Vahab approached us in 2006, and explained how his patents and intellectual property, and the new technology products they would give rise to were worth billions of dollars, we listened to him. I personally did not understand too much about the inventions he talked about, this new technology for alternative energy based on hydrogen “on demand” or V-GEN system using thorium instead of fossil fuel, but his presentation was so convincing and so thorough, everyone accepted it enthusiastically. So, while we may have not known all the details of his technology, we had all heard of the terms and concepts of “green energy” and “clean energy”, and, most importantly, we understood what this joint venture could do for our church and our building project. Perhaps we couldn’t understand all the specific technologies he showed us, but we did believe in him; or rather, we believed he was the gift sent by God to help us build HIM the new house, especially after the Sunland property had already been blessed twice by His Eminence. Unfortunately, although we didn’t know it at that time, America in general, and California, in particular, were heading towards the Financial Crisis of 2007-2009, and its aftermath, the Great Recession. A Host of Difficulties and Challenges Aside from the financial crisis itself, there were several other significant factors that lead to challenges and difficulties in our joint venture. Some of those factors included competition, regulation, and corruption at both the corporate and governmental levels. In terms of competition, there were many new burgeoning companies that were formed to take advantage of the then-new electric car and battery technologies. Many of these companies already had tremendous advantages in the form of funding and advanced intellectual property portfolios. Tesla Motors, Inc., founded in 2003 (Elon Musk, CEO since 2008), an American electric vehicle and clean energy company based in Palo Alto, California was such a competitor. At the time, Tesla was working on similar products as Peeker (electric cars, battery energy systems, electric grid systems, solar panels, etc.), but was much better funded than Peeker. At one point Mr. Vahab even submitted some of his own product designs to Tesla in consideration for their use in Tesla’s electric vehicles. Corruption, especially in the former eastern Soviet-bloc countries, was another major obstacle. Mr. Vahab had no idea of the deep corruption in Romania at that time. Due to this factor, the deal was faced with many serious challenges. It was only much later on that we learned that many people involved with the sale of Electroputere, and other state-owned businesses were using corrupt, self-dealing business practices to steal the assets of the Romanian people and the country. This type of behavior was commonplace, from the lowest city clerk asking for bribes, up to the Prime Minister of the Country who, actually, went to prison for fraud, theft, and other crimes that were committed during this period of Romanian privatization. The Financial Crisis and The Great Recession – A Bad Time to start a Company (2007-2010)Although there were several other assorted difficulties and challenges during this period, perhaps no other was as significant as the financial crisis of 2007-2009, and its aftermath, the Great Recession, in the years following the crisis. The financial crisis of 2007–2009, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC) and Great Recession, was a severe worldwide economic crisis. Prior to the COVID-19 recession, it was considered by many economists to have been the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression. Excessive risk-taking by banks, combined with the bursting of the United States housing bubble, bankrupted many banks and many renowned financial institutions like Lehman Brothers, which led to a chain reaction through the entire financial system, and eventually, the entire global economy. Many otherwise healthy, profitable, non-financial businesses also found themselves in a dire situation where they could no longer access credit or financing, for the simple reason that the global financial system was coming close to the brink of collapse. This was one of the major ways that the financial crisis affected us personally at HTROC. When the church’s short-term one year loan came due in 2008, it was completely impossible for us to find a conventional lender to refinance and extend our loan. Due to the severe condition of the financial system as the crisis was unfolding, the banks simply did not want to give out any loans at that time, regardless of purpose. Working with various private investors, Mr. Vahab was able to eventually secure for us another short term loan, with which we were able to refinance and pay off the first loan. Unfortunately, such loans are always expensive and have high finance charges. The development of the prototype takes longer than expected By 2009, the prototype, although being in a very advanced stage for it’s first test, still wasn’t ready enough for testing purposes. By the end of 2009 the first test of the “thorium generator” prototype took place. The result: It was sent back to the Arizona Manufacturer with the required recommendations and corrections. In the meantime, the 2nd short term loan came due, and therefore, another loan had to be secured to pay off the 2008 loan New Government regulations imposed on the prototype tests Because the prototype manufacturers were located in Arizona, and the Testing Facilities were located in California (General Atomics, in San Diego), new regulations were imposed by the Government, and new California requirements had to be met. It was then, in 2009, when a new more permanent loan (5+ years), to pay off the 2nd loan, so as to have enough time to have the prototype tested and approved, and the patent registered for mass-production. C - POST FINANCIAL CRISIS (2009-2019) By 2012, the prototype had been tested twice, and still had not passed. It was sent back, yet again, to manufacturer for corrections. At this stage we all started to become concerned with the delays. Everyone agreed that while we were moving forward, we should also start looking for a “Plan B”, in case “Plan A” – the Investment, did not work out. By mid-June 2012, we had presented the current situation to the building committee. By September 2013, the building committee and the parish council had decided to make a recommendation to the 2014 General Assembly to discuss, analyze and explore different options and possibilities of either partially developing the property, by subdivision, or in the worst case scenario, selling it outright. Some of the more interesting ideas from the Assembly were:
As we were investigating these ideas throughout 2013-2014, the building committee worked closely with our former civil engineer on the building project, Mr. George Boghossian. We contracted with him to come up with the feasibility of the various options and plans we were considering, especially with respect to the costs of development as well as the length of time to completion. Although we only informally explored the preliminary stages of these potential developments with broad estimates and back-of-the-envelope math, everyone was shocked at the incredible costs of these potential proposals, as well as the long time it would take to implement them. It was at this time that Mr. Boghossian, an experienced veteran in this business, pretty much laid out for us that the church had neither the funds nor the available time to complete the projects that we were contemplating. The bright side was that Mr. Boghossian himself offered us a proposal of his own: Mr. Boghossian, an experienced developer himself, offered to purchase the vacant property from the church, and hold it in an unofficial sort of custodianship on the Church’s behalf, for a period of several years, while the church, reorganized it’s investments and restructured it’s financial situation. While it wasn’t an official, explicit agreement, we reached an understanding that the land would sit untouched and undeveloped for at least three (3) years, where the church could buy back the property from Mr. Boghossian. Then, there would be an additional two (2) years where the church could still re-purchase the property, but would have to reimburse whatever due diligence / development costs Mr. Boghossian incurred as he began to work on developing it. After much deliberation, and in an effort not to make the things any worse than they had already become, the 2015 Assembly took the decision to sell the property and enter into a “Gentleman’s Agreement”, between our Church and Mr. Boghossian, where we would have between 3-5 years to buy it back. Thus, on April 30th, 2015, this non conventional “sale” took place. Mr. George Boghossian, a good hearted Christian, had been with us from the beginning and knew how much our small community wanted to build that church. As the civil engineer, he also had a great front-row seat to the various trials and tribulations we had endured from the secular civic authorities, who harassed us for 20 years and had still not issued a final CUP (Conditional Use Permit) to us. Mr. Boghossian, cognizant and appreciative of all these facts, went even a step further on our behalf, and when he bought the property, he registered the property title, not in his own name, but that of a special entity. The transfer of the title to this special entity, similar in name to our own church (“Holy Trinity Romanian Orthodox Church” vs "The Holy Trinity Romanian Church"), was meant to preserve the continuity of the progress HTROC had made thus far (i.e. the Conditional Use Permit, the Shadow Hills Homeowner's Association accords and permits, etc.). In the event that we were able to 1.) successfully resolve our financial issues and 2.) were able to raise the funds ($5-$7 million dollars) to wished to continue to build the Romanian Church and its cultural center, as we had planned since 1987, Mr. Boghossian would happily allow us to re-purchase the property from him and continue to develop it, picking up from the point where we left off. As of yesterday, May 9, 2021, the “Sunland” property has not been developed in any way, shape or form. The property is still in exactly the same condition as when it was transferred in 2015, down to the signage proclaiming that the site is “PROPERTY AND FUTURE HOME OF THE HOLY TRINITY ROMANIAN CHURCH”. Due to the fact that Covid hit the California construction industry especially hard, I would expect it to stay this way (undeveloped) for quite some time. Although I have not spoken with Mr. Boghossian in several years, and we are beyond the 5-year window for repurchase, I am confident that Mr. Boghossian would be willing to resell the property to us if that was our desire. I personally reached out to Mr. Boghossian myself to confirm this fact, but as the time of the writing of this report, had not heard back yet. As for the current financial conditions of the HTROC with respect to repurchasing the property, any and all outstanding financial issues have been completely resolved and dealt with. Should the decision be taken to re-purchase the property, the church would financially be able perform and take back the title to the property, quite easily, within this next year or so (specifically, by the close of the estate probate in fall/winter). Christian Vahab - The scientist and entrepreneur passes away (2016) Unfortunately, Mr. Vahab passed away in 2016, at the time when military contractor General Dynamics of San Diego were conducting the last, final tests on the Peeker-PAESI thorium battery/generator. As Mr. Vahab operated mostly as a “one-man army”, without their visionary inventor and CEO, the Peeker-PAESI corporations are most probably insolvent and permanently out of business. The companies themselves are likely heavily indebted and bankrupt, and the current status of their intellectual property assets is unclear and unknown. PART VI – CONCLUDING REMARKS
In summary, since much of the church membership is presently made out mostly of younger people, many of them still newcomers from Romania in the last 20-30 years, we have tried to assure that the church is financially self-sufficient in the following ways:
Ideas and Recommendations for the Future Finally, as I stand here on the brink of my retirement, but knowing very well the harsh and ungodly realities in California, I would dare to make a recommendation. As it is well known by now, California has become in the last 2-3 decades a bankrupt, radically-liberal blue, “Sanctuary State”, that attracts and protects illegal aliens, drug traffickers and promoters, hard drugs cultivators and distributors, etc. Although California was once known as a pro-Catholic State, under the current Democrat Party, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her nephew, Governor Gavin Newsom, seem to have profited off of the 2020 <Covid 19> pandemic, to further implement their liberal agenda in financial matters, like Universal Basic Income that will eventually bankrupt the Golden State, as well as a disturbing social agenda that includes cancel culture, anti-religious regulations, anti-police, pro-crime sentiments, and collapsing health and education systems. In contrast, many Romanians, who are mostly conservative, pro-family, moral and religious values, respect for ownership of Real Estate, etc, etc…Seeing what is going on in California, many of the Romanians decided to move to other “Red States” (i.e. Grigore & Ana Birtoc, long life members, supporters and pillars of our church, moved to Florida, at the beginning of this year). I suggest the Episcopate not to contemplate of buying back the “Sunland Property”, but rather “sit on the cash”, keep it and grow it in professionally managed accounts (like Merrill Lynch), until a centrally located, prime area Catholic Church can be found for sale, and then enter into a contract that concomitantly purchases such a church with the proceeds from the selling of the “Verdugo Property”, and with portion of the over $ 2 Million in liquid assets transform by remodeling that church from Catholic into Orthodox style. I know it would be much easier and much more doable this way, without having to go through the uncertainty and headaches of getting the City Permits for a new construction project. Of course, these are just my suggestions. Ultimately, the community, the leadership, and the new priest to be appointed to replace me, will decide if they want to further pursue the new church building project, or consider an alternative approach Final Note: In looking back over the circumstances and events detailed in this report, I realize I have a lot of regrets. Some regrets are of the simple variety; for example, certain actions that I would not have taken if I had known back then what I know now. Other regrets have to do with things that I wish I had done, or done better. For example, communicating more clearly with my Hierarch and Episcopate Council. Part of this has to do with the misguided idea that I thought I was somehow helping by taking all of burdens upon myself to resolve, instead of burdening others. The other part of it has to do with the great complexity of the 20+ year situation, and the difficulty in trying to express ongoing, unresolved issues in a “clean” and definitive way. Even now, as mentioned above, I remain still somewhat unsure of the exact status of the Sunland property and the future of Building Project and the HTROC. I deeply regret that the investment deal with “Electroputere” and the thorium batteries didn’t work out. It would have been a tremendous game-changer. The church would have stood to make millions of dollars, and the future of the Building Project would have certainly been assured. Mostly though, I feel bad that I was not able to build a new church building during my tenure as the parish priest. Our community and I, myself, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars as well as significant investments in time and energy to making this dream a reality, but we were not able to accomplish it, in the end. I feel bad for all the blood, sweat, and tears that were shed in pursuit of this goal, but I look forward with hope that the next generation will take up the mantle and realize our dreams of the past. Finally, my only solace and consolation, is that everything that I have done, and decisions I have taken for and on behalf of the HTROC, in almost 40 years of pastorship, were in good conciseness, being convinced that my intentions were to best serve the Lord; it’s Church, and my Hierarch, with the best of my abilities. (Fr) Constantin Alecse |
Report to the Episcopate Council Meeting - May 13, 2021(English) |
AMF Estate vs. Building Project(Romanian) |
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