On October 29, 2016, a long-awaited event took place in the village of Urshelsk in the Gus-Khrustalny district: the consecration of a church dedicated to the apostle and evangelist John the Theologian. The consecration ceremony was conducted by Metropolitan Evlogy of Vladimir and Suzdal. This small but cozy church was reconstructed from the building of a former eight-year school.

Since 1872, a prayer house had been functioning in Urshelsk, and in 1889, Y.S. Nechaev-Maltsov built a wooden church of John the Theologian here, which was affiliated with the village of Arefino Tikhonovo. According to local residents, the church burned down in 1925 or 1929. At that time, there was a strong communist cell in the Urshelsk factory, which is possibly why the issue of restoring the church was not raised. In 1927, the village was transformed into a workers' settlement, and the factory was named 'X-th Anniversary of October.'

The new history of the church community in Urshelsk began in 1992 when, at the initiative of Lyubov Viktorovna Savelieva, the first meeting of the believing residents of the village took place. A petition for the construction of a church, signed by 500 residents, was submitted to Bishop Evlogy. He instructed the archpriest John Kravchenko to hold a meeting in the village. The residents supported the idea of building a new church, and the head of the village administration, Y.N. Orlov, proposed to use the old building of the former school, which had previously served as a dormitory, hospital, and club, but was in a state of neglect.