| Description | The Cathedral of the Holy Family in Exile is the church of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Eparchy of Holy Family of London. Although it comes under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchial bishop, it also forms part of the Marylebone Deanery of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster.
From 1948 to 1967, Ukrainian Greek Catholics worshipped at the church of St.Theodore of Canterbury, Saffron Hill, later demolished. The church was a small one and, on important feasts, when more than the usual number of people attended, services were held at the nearby Italian Church of St Peter of all Nations in Clerkenwell Road, or in Westminster Cathedral. As well as religious services, the Ukrainian Saturday School was held here.
The Cathedral of the Holy Family in Exile is located in Duke Street, Mayfair, London. The building was originally designed by Alfred Waterhouse in 1891 for the Congregational King’s Weigh House and was sold to the Ukrainian Catholics in 1967. The church was adapted for Byzantine rite services, and an iconostasis designed by Wasyl Borecky was uinstalled. On display in the north-east corner of the Cathedral is a sculpture of the Holy Family with St John the Baptist, salvaged from the now demolished church in Saffron Hill. The Cathedral was closed temporarily in 2007 when part of the ceiling collapsed, but has since been refurbished. The iconostasis created by a Ukrainian monk, Juvenalij Mokrytsky, was not affected by the ceiling’s collapse. The Jesuit priests at the nearby Church of the Immaculate Conception in Farm Street invited congregation members to worship at their sanctuary until the Cathedral could be repaired. |