The Patriarchal Parishes of Russian Orthodox Church in Canada is a ''canonical unit'' of the Moscow Patriarchate in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The headquarters of the church is in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

; home to St. Barbara Cathedral. From Edmonton, two traveling priests serve a number of rural churches. Other parishes are located in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

and Ottawa.

History

Orthodox believers first came to Canada in large numbers from the Austro-Hungarian province of Bukovina in the 1890s, and they settled mostly in the prairie provinces. Most self-identified as

Ruthenians Ruthenian and Ruthene are exonyms of Latin language, Latin origin, formerly used in Eastern and Central Europe as common ethnonyms for East Slavs, particularly during the late medieval and early modern periods. The Latin term Rutheni was used in ...

Ukrainians Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...

but some were

Russophiles Russophilia (literally love of Russia or Russians) is admiration and fondness of Russia (including the era of the Soviet Union and/or the Russian Empire), Russian history and Russian culture. The antonym is Russophobia. In the 19th Century, ...

; all of them were without any Orthodox priests. The Russian Church had prior claim to all of North America because of its missionary activity in Alaska and California. The first Orthodox service in Canada was held in 1897 by the Reverend Dimitri Kamnev and Deacon Vladimir Alexandrov. They had been dispatched by Bishop Nicholas of the Russian Orthodox Church Mission in San Francisco, USA to the tiny settlement of Wostok near Edmonton. After the Russian Revolution, many Orthodox believers in Western Canada defected to the

Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , native_name_lang = uk , caption_background = , image = StGeorgeCathedral Lviv.JPG , imagewidth = , type = Particular church (sui iuris) , alt = , caption = St. George's ...

or the new

Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada (UOCC; french: Église orthodoxe ukrainienne du Canada) is an Eastern Orthodox church in Canada, primarily consisting of Orthodox Ukrainian Canadians. Its former name (before 1990) was the Ukrainian Greek ...

. Those Orthodox churches in Canada that stayed with the Moscow Patriarchate, primarily in Alberta, combined with later churches built in Eastern Canada, formed the basis for what is now known as the Patriarchal Parishes of Russian Orthodox Church in Canada.

Cathedral

St. Barbara Church in Edmonton was founded in 1902. The original building, sitting on the same site as the present on top of Grierson Hill, was a converted two-story residence. It was replaced by a wooden church that was used until 1958. The third and present building was opened officially opened August 8, 1959, and was consecrated as a cathedral. In 2010, the iconostas was replaced with icons from Russia attached to a screen carved by a parishioner who is also a master woodworker.

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russian Orthodox Church In Canada Eastern Orthodox dioceses in Canada

Ukrainian Canadian religion Christian organizations based in Canada Religious sees in Edmonton Russian-Canadian culture Rusyn Canadian