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Expanded Europeam migrantion to both America and Canada after the American Civil War brought with it an even more varied religious landscape. Emmigration from central and Eastern Europe in the late 19th century brought many Orthodox Christians to Canada. The first Orthodox Christians came from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but they were soon followed by immigrants from Russia. The first Orthodox immigrants came from Halychyna (Galicia) and Bukovina, eastern areas of the Empire. They reached Canada in 1894. As they were farmers, their goal was the great Western prarie where immigrants could homestead. The first Orthodox immigrants settled southwest of Edmonton in Alberta. The area was known as Rabbit Hills. More Orthodox immigrants came in 1896. They settled northeast of Edmonton in the (Edna) Star and Limestone Lake area which was named Wostok. The Canadian Government granted the immigrants 160 acres of free land
for a registration fee of only $10. The settklers in Alberta built log cabins finished with sod roofs. Further east the immigrants built sod houses. The communities that developed felt isolated in that there was at the time they arrived no Orthodox church in Canada.
After the British seizue of Canada, immigrtion was mostly limited to arrivals from the British iles. Much of Canadas Scottish population arrived at this time bringing Presbetarians. This was followed by a new Catholic community with the arrival of the Irish in the 1840s. Expanded European migrantion to both America and Canada after the American Civil War brought with it an even more varied religious landscape. Emmigration from central and Eastern Europe in the late 19th century brought many Orthodox Christians to Canada. The first Orthodox Christians came from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but they were soon followed by immigrants from Russia.
The first Orthodox immigrants to Canada came from Halychyna (Galicia) and Bukovina, eastern areas of the Empire. They reached Canada in 1894. More immigrants from Austria-Hungary arrived in 1896.
As many of the Orthodox immigrants in 1894 were farmers, their goal was the great Western prarie where immigrants could homestead. The first Orthodox immigrants settled southwest of Edmonton in Alberta. The area was known as Rabbit Hills. More Orthodox immigrants came in 1896. They settled northeast of Edmonton in the (Edna) Star and Limestone Lake area which was named Wostok. The Canadian Government granted the immigrants 160 acres of free land
for a registration fee of only $10. This was an area of land unheard of for poor farmers from central Europe. And it was being offered them free. The homsteaders in Alberta built log cabins finished with sod roofs. Further east the immigrants built sod houses.
The communities that developed felt isolated in that there was at the time they arrived no Orthodox church in Canada. There was no priest accompanying the forst Orthodox immigrants. Anton Sawka and other laymen with some knowledge of Church liturgy organized common prayers, but without a priest there could be no masses held.
An immigrant named Nemirsky wrote in his diary. "Above everything else, we were sad and depressed, when someone died and funerals were conducted without a priest, children were growing up not baptized, and young couples lived without the sacrament of marriage. To live without the word of God and a church was very unsatisfactory." There was also few Orthodx Christiansd in the United States--with one exception. The Unites States after the Civil War purchased Alaska (1876). Here the the Orthodox church functioned in an area relatively close to Alberta. As a result, the immigrants wrote to Nicholas, Bishop of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands asking that they accept them as part of his ministry and send a priest at least once a year to officiate at religious services and minister to the local congregation.
Bishop Nicholas was most accomodating and even odffered to come himself. The immigrants did not believe, however, that there still primitive settlement could properrly receive such a eminent ofiicial, so instead two missionaries were sent-- Rev. Dimitri Kamnev and Cantor Vladimir Alexandrov (1897). About 380 people attended the first mass. The first church was built at Wostok on land donated by the Canadian Government (1900). Other Orthodox immigrants organized a parish in Manitoba near Assinaboia (1897). Father Malyarevsky periodically traveled from Minneapolis, Minnesota to minister to the community. Most of the people here were from Bukovina. For some reason the Canadian Government here declined to provide land for a church. Orthodox communities continued to develop in Manitoba, especially around Stuartborn, Emerson, Winnipeg, and Yorkton. Canadian officials advised Orthodox clerics that the church nedded to register as a corporate entity in Canada. The Church did so as the Russo-Greek-Catholic Orthodox Church (1903). The Church continued to expand with arrival of more immigrants from Austria-Hungary and Russia during the erly 20th century.
World War I erupted in Europe in 1914. This had two fundamental impacts on the Orthodox Church in Canada. The War ended significant immigration from central and easter Europe. The two principal countries were Austria-Hungary and Russia who fought on opposite sides of the war. Not only was there no way to get to Canada because of the War, but both countries were conscripting available young men or the War. The other major impact was the Russian Revolution.
The catastrophe of World War I enabled the Bolshevicks to seize power in Russia. This made relations with the mother church in Russia very difficult. In addition, the mother church soon found itself under attack from the ardently athiest Bolshevicks.
The highly nationalist European sentiments also affected the unity of the small Orthodox community in Canada. Although arriving from Austria-Hungary, many of the people from Bukovina saw themselves as Ukranians. As a result they formed a new Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Ukranians attempted to create an independent country following World War I. The Ukraine suffered terribly in the Civil War (1918-11) and in the Ukranian famine engineered by Stalin (1930-31). Other Orthodox communicants remained in the American Metropolia of the Russian Orthodox Church, which no longer had contact with the Mother Church. The early Orthodox parishes that were founded by the first immigrants wanted to maintain their ties with the Mother Church. They continued their identity with and support of the Mother Church. The various branches of Orhodoxy in Canada were not reunited until 1959.
At this time, the Edmonton Canadian Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church was proclaimed by the Moscow Patriarchate.
The Church appointed Archbishop Panteleimon of Edmonton.
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