The temple previously belonged to the community of the Moscow Patriarchate.
On July 7, the throne and monastery of St. John the Baptist were consecrated in Drohobych. His Beatitude Metropolitan Epiphany of Kyiv and All Ukraine arrived at the solemn event, he conducted the rite of consecration and the Divine Liturgy.
“I congratulate everyone present on this great event for the entire Drohobych community, which is another brick in the development of our local Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Orthodox Ukrainians united around the spiritual capital of Ukraine – ancient Kyiv. The unification process continues and will continue in the future. Now there is a war going on in our country, which is taking away the best and the flower of our nation. We pay a high price for our freedom and independence. But in this difficult time, we must all unite, because only in unity is our strength. We must defeat the aggressor who broke into our common peaceful home. We proved that we are indomitable and will fight to the end, and most importantly: we will cleanse our God-given Ukrainian land from the Russian boot!”, His Beatitude Epiphany emphasized.
During the liturgy, which was attended by the head of the Lviv OVA Maksym Kozytskyi, the clergy remembered those who died as a result of yesterday’s Russian shelling of Lviv, prayed for the preservation of the health and lives of the defenders of our state, the victory of Ukraine and peace.
“I am very grateful to His Holiness Epiphanius for coming to Lviv region today and consecrating this church. Extremely grateful for his leadership and the people for their steadfast faith in God and our future victory. Everyone helps the Ukrainian army in any way they can: some with loud deeds, and some with silent prayer, which is able to save more than one life of our brave soldiers. Thank you to everyone who joins our victory, because unity is our strength, and I am convinced that thanks to this, no enemy will defeat us!” – emphasized Maksym Kozytskyi.
For reference: this church used to belong to the community of the Moscow Patriarchate. In May 2022, the religious community decided to leave the Moscow Patriarchate and join the OCU.
On August 18, 2022, the Drohobytsk City Council passed a decision to approve the land management project and transfer the land plot to the permanent use of the Drohobytsk-Sambir Eparchy of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
In the former temple of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Drohobytsk-Sambir Diocese created the Garrison Church named after Peter Sahaidachny and the monastery of St. John the Baptist. As of today, Archimandrite Nikon is the abbot of the monastery of St. John the Baptist of the OCU.