South Park resident Luke Miller has fond memories growing up among worshippers at St. John the Baptizer Ukrainian Catholic Church, a community his family helped establish decades ago in San Diego County.
Miller’s family first emigrated from Ukraine in 1912 to find work, later going back to Europe before returning to the United States and eventually settling in San Diego.
Children at St. John the Baptizer Ukrainian Catholic Church pretend to be growing crops in Ukraine to represent the country’s agricultural abundance as part of the play “Holodomor,” which commemorates the 90th anniversary of the starvation of millions of Ukrainians in 1932-33 as a result of Soviet Union policies.
(Brittany Cruz-Fejeran / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
During a picnic attended by his grandparents and mother at Lakeside’s El Monte County Park in 1959, a group of families with Ukrainian roots decided to found a church, which held its first service the following year.
The 38-year-old Miller grew up in that church community, serving as an altar boy and learning Ukrainian dance techniques at its former location in City Heights. Today, he leads the music during Sunday service, but for years the church has not had a permanent location.
In 2000, the church moved to La Mesa after selling its former location in City Heights that it had called home since 1966. A decade later, that property was sold, and since 2018, parishioners from St. John the Baptizer Ukrainian Catholic Church have gathered for weekly worship service at St. Augustine High School in North Park.
Soon, the congregation will have a new home in Santee.
During its Nov. 8 meeting, the Santee City Council unanimously voted to approve the church at the corner of Carlton Oaks Drive and Pike Road.
Adorned by five gold-painted domes, the new church will be built in the Ukrainian Baroque architectural style modeled after the 11th century Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine.
The approved design, which will seat 76 people in its nave, includes an adjoining social hall where the congregation plans to serve coffee after church service, 19 parking spaces and landscaping design.
Michael Miller flips through his bible during the liturgy at St. John the Baptizer Ukrainian Catholic Church on Nov. 12.
(Brittany Cruz-Fejeran / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
There will be one prayer service on Saturdays and one traditional church service held on Sunday mornings, during which there will be no musical instruments used as the church’s hymns are chanted A Capella. The social hall will not be available for rent to the general public.
Before approving the plan, several Santee City Council members voiced concerns about the number of parking spaces at the new church, which will be built on an empty lot across the street from the Carlton Oaks Plaza shopping center.
“Just 19 spaces makes me a little nervous,” Councilmember Ronn Hall said. “My office used to be in that center, and they’re booked. I’ve been in that center and for me to find parking sometimes was hard, so I just don’t want to interfere with them.”
During the meeting, Miller agreed to try to make an overflow parking deal with a neighboring school.
The years-long effort to build the new church took on new meaning when the Russian invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022.
In April 2022, the conflict brought 19,016 Ukrainian refugees seeking entry to the United States at the Mexican border through San Diego, which accounted for 90 percent of all Ukrainians seeking entrance at U.S. ports of entry, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a data research organization at Syracuse University.
The Rev. Yurii Sas administers Holy Communion at St. John the Baptizer Ukrainian Catholic Church on Nov. 12.
(Brittany Cruz-Fejeran / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
That was the same month President Joe Biden announced United For Ukraine, a streamlined, humanitarian effort to allow Ukrainians fleeing the war to enter the United States. The federal government reports that as of April 2023, more than 300,000 Ukrainians have entered the United States since the start of the invasion.
Over the last year and a half, Miller said that several parishioners — many of whom were either born in Ukraine or have relatives still living there — have had family members captured or killed by Russian troops. Several parishioners emigrated to San Diego after having to hide in bomb shelters or witness bombs exploding in their home cities.
“They have come because of the fear of loss of life or through economic desolation,” Miller said. “The main cathedral for our church is in Kyiv, and they were holding services in the crypt because of the bombardments. A lot of our churches were destroyed.”
The development process to build a new, permanent location for the church has been under the leadership of the Rev. Yurii Sas, who has served as the parish administrator since 2018. Sas moved to the United States seven years ago, and after first serving a congregation in North Dakota for two years, he was presented with a unique proposition.
“The bishop called me again and said, ‘Father Yurii, you are still young, we have another wonderful parish for you in San Diego. No church, no rectory, no money, but a lot of opportunities to build a new church,’ ” Sas said.
Veronica Gnip holds up a candle for Ukrainians lost during the Holodomor famine during a service at St. John the Baptizer Ukrainian Catholic Church on Nov. 12.
(Brittany Cruz-Fejeran / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Two years into leading the church, the pandemic happened and he started presiding over services in a parishioner’s garden in La Mesa so the congregation could continue worshiping safely outdoors while waiting to return to St. Augustine. Sometimes, that meant dealing with extreme heat.
“During these five years, we were working very hard. We became stronger and our faith and our hope,” Sas said.
When it was time to develop a new location for the church, Miller was happy to use his expertise working in real estate to take the lead on the effort. He said the new church will be the place where he watches his 17-month-old daughter and newborn son grow up and, maybe someday, see them get married, raise families and have their children baptized.
Miller said the community is grateful it was able to hold services at St. Augustine, but he looks forward to moving into the new church.
“It will feel like a little piece of Ukraine,” he said. “I’m trying to think about when I’m singing one Sunday, how am I going to hold my squirrely toddler in that building, what’s it going to feel like?”
