St. John the Theologian's Convent

St. John the Theologian's Convent is a house of the Zaporizhzhia Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the settlement of Ternuvate, Novomykolayiv district, Zaporizhzhia region, founded in honour of the holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian¹.

The idea of the convent arose among local believers at the end of the 2000s: the diocesan press service wrote "two years ago" both in September 2010 and in January 2011, so the initiative falls in 2008 or 2009^{2, 3}. A plot of land with buildings was allotted for the future monastery, and one of the buildings was repaired².

On 27 July 2010 Yosyf, Bishop of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol, visited Ternuvate and blessed the establishment of a convent on that site². He also blessed a sister of St. Elizabeth's Convent, the nun Khionia, to come to the house then under construction and begin its spiritual life².

On 28 September 2010, with Bishop Yosyf's blessing, a diocesan inspection commission travelled to Ternuvate - the secretary of the Zaporizhzhia Diocese, the rector of St. Andrew's cathedral, a member of the diocesan council and a nun - to find out how the organisation of the convent of the holy Apostle John the Theologian was progressing².

The commission found the allotted land, whose registration was still under way, the dwelling and farm buildings after a capital repair, and a winter church added to the existing church and still being fitted out: the iconostasis had begun to be installed between the sanctuary and the main part². Four people were living in the house being built at that time, and the head of the village council, whom the commission met, offered the settlement community's help to those establishing the monastery².

Two sisters settled here to arrange the monastery - the nuns Maria and Khionia - and by joint efforts a church in honour of the holy Apostle John the Theologian was raised for the future house³.

On 22 January 2011 Luka, Archbishop of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol, consecrated the altar in the newly built church and celebrated the Divine Liturgy in it³.

Concelebrating with the Zaporizhzhia hierarch were the dean of the Novomykolayiv deanery district, Archpriest Andrii Ilkiv, and the clergy of the deanery, and about 150 parishioners prayed at the service³. Priests and faithful from the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region, from the settlement of Pokrovske and the village of Katerynivka, came to share the joy of the prayer³.

On 14 June 2011 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, presided over by His Beatitude Volodymyr, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, heard the report of Archbishop Luka on the opening of a convent in honour of the holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian in the settlement of Ternuvate, Novomykolayiv district, Zaporizhzhia region, and resolved to bless that opening; the act is recorded as Journal No. 37¹.

By the diocesan press service's account, the history of the house began in 2011 with the decision to reorganise a parish - the church in honour of the icon of the Mother of God "Look upon Humility" - into a monastery⁴; by the same service's count, St. John the Theologian's Convent became the third convent of the Zaporizhzhia Diocese⁵.

The block in which the sisters settled was built in the nineteenth century⁴.

On 4 February 2012 Archbishop Luka, concelebrating with the clergy of the Novomykolayiv deanery, served the Divine Liturgy in the monastery church of the holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian⁶.

With Archbishop Luka's blessing, nuns came to the house in 2013⁴. In the same year five sisters of the women's monastic community that existed at the monastery in honour of St. Sabbas the Sanctified in Melitopol were transferred to the newly created St. John the Theologian's Convent⁷.