This is a wooden church located in a territory adjacent to the National Mental Health Clinic. It exists to takes care of the spiritual needs of the clinic’s patients. Every Sunday, the Convent’s clergy celebrate a divine liturgy for the patients, enabling them to partake in the Holy Sacraments.
The patron saint of the church, St John of Shanghai and San Francisco is known for his ministry among people with mental illness and disability. Describing his ideal of ministry and service, Saint John of Shanghai wrote:
“Holiness is not simply righteousness, for which the righteous merit the enjoyment of blessedness in the Kingdom of God, but rather such a height of righteousness that men are filled with the grace of God to the extent that it flows from them upon those who associate with them. Great is their blessedness; it proceeds from personal experience of the Glory of God. Being filled also with love for men, which proceeds from love of God, they are responsive to men’s needs, and upon their supplication, they appear also as intercessors and defenders for them before God.”
Life and teachings are a great source of inspiration for our lives and work today.