Dear Friends and Supporters of Vimokkharam,

 

Fresh off our well-attended 'Grand Opening' celebration, there are a number of updates I would like to share with the community...

 

Firstly, the event went quite smoothly despite the torrential rains the night before. This was due in large part to the hard work of our amazing committee and many other volunteers to clean and prepare everything and get many, many moving parts of the ceremony organised in time. The temple was formally offered to the Sangha of the four directions, present and future -- and so now it belongs to the Triple Gem, and not any particular individual...

 

The generosity from all involved on the day has put me in the happy position to declare our fundraising period for the reconstruction over! We now have enough funds in our building account to pay off any outstanding loan payments, as well as all construction-related costs that are still to be paid. So not only is the new temple finished and consecrated, but it is also fully paid for!

 

In accordance with this, our 'Pledge Drive' is officially over and I would like to invite anyone who is still honouring their monthly pledges for the construction to cancel that pledge and direct their funds to other worthy uses. Our tax-registered Building Fund account will now also be retired into hibernation for the time being as we have no further building projects on the horizon. Any future financial support for the hermitage can be directed to either the General Operating Account or the Sangha Travel Fund - an account we plan to use mainly to be able to invite Ajahns to visit us from varying places to benefit and inspire our community.

 

Now that we have celebrated the full re-opening of Vimokkharam, we can now further celebrate Vesakha Puja -- the birth, enlightenment and passing away of the Buddha -- right here at the hermitage for the first time since 2013. We will hold our Vesak celebration this year on the actual day of Vesak, Sunday May 15th in the new 'Sanghaloka Hall' here. A more detailed schedule will follow...

 

We are also coming up to the first Saturday of the month, but due to the massive amount of activity here recently, we will cancel our regular Garden Working bee this Saturday and have a rather quiet and normal weekend for a change :-)

 

With much appreciation and good wishes to all,

Ajahn Hāsapañño

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Click here for pictures of the Grand Opening Ceremony.