New Westminster is located on the north bank of the Fraser River, twenty kilometers east of Vancouver. It was founded in 1859 and established by Governor James Douglas as the capital city of the Crown colony of British Columbia. Queen Victoria named the settlement after Westminster in England and, for that reason it has been called the Royal City. It remained the capital of the province until 1866 when Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia were united. In 1868, the capital was moved to Victoria and New Westminster’s brief moment of glory was over.
New Westminster started to grow and prosper after it was linked to the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1887. It was linked to the United States by the Great Northern Railway in 1891 and to Eastern Canada with its connection to the Canadian National Railway in 1915.
On 10 September 1898, the heart of the city was almost completely destroyed by a disastrous fire. The city was rebuilt in 1902.
In the past, the main sector of New Westminster’s economy was the forest industry which employed over forty percent of the manufacturing force in local mills. Later, with the decline of industrial plants, New Westminster has become more of a residential centre. It boasted a population of 44,443 in 1991. (See Canadian Encyclopedia….)
A small number of Ukrainians settled in the New Westminster area during the early 1900s. Some of these early settlers included Yurko Syrotiuk who settled in Port Haney, and Myroslav Stechyshyn, a well-known journalist and socialist activist. More Ukrainians began arriving, first from the Prairie Provinces after the Great Depression and later from the Prairie Provinces and Europe after World War II.
Led by the late John Piskorik, the first local Ukrainians to petition for the celebration of liturgical services according to the Ukrainian (Greek) Catholic rite were the Transcarpathians (former citizens of Czechoslovakia). They built the Church of the Holy Spirit in the Queensborough area in 1943. It was blessed by Vancouver’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Duke. Father Christopher Kondratiuk, OSBM, celebrated the first Ukrainian rite Divine Liturgy there in June 1944 and continued to serve the parish, travelling from Vancouver every Sunday during the following year. The church was later taken over by Roman Catholics because the title to the land was registered in 1943 to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese in Vancouver by Father Edward Malayter, OMI.
The first Ukrainian parishioners of this mission in New Westminster were Jack and Pauline Makara and family. The pioneers of mission included J. Piskorik, J. Makara, Charles Gerak, Nick Shewchuk, Ignat Roman, Anna Hlagi, John Lunter, Andrew Hresko, John Calko, George, Matt, Mike and Andrew Skurla, Andrew Safranko, Martin Myckatyn, John Petrunia, William Shewchuk, Stephen Lobay and Joseph Hnatiw.
After Father Kondratiuk’s departure for the United States, Father George Zydan, OSBM, served the parish between 1945-51, commuting from Vernon and Vancouver. As well, Father Nicholas Silady visited the parish from Victoria several times during 1949. Father Basil Martynyk, the pastor in Richmond, began serving the Church of the Holy Spirit in 1952. Father Markian Bilyk arrived to assume his post as the first resident pastor in the middle of 1953.
The parish began to organize along more formal lines. A full Parish Committee was formed in 1952 with Charles Gerak as its first chairperson. He was assisted by Jack Makara who, together with his wife, worked to organize various functions to raise money for the building fund. Makara was, in turn, replaced by William Young, another enterprising member of the parish.
Also in 1952, the women organized into a Sisterhood which, thanks to the initiative of Father Bilyk, became the Ukrainian Catholic Women’s League in 1954. Their first chairperson was Anna Hlagi who was assisted by Pauline Makara. Nicholas Bilchak formed and conducted a mixed choir during this same period. Between 1953-54 an altar boys’ group, a Ridna Shkola (Ukrainian language school) and catechism classes were organized by Father Bilyk and Natalia Danyliw. Due to a lack of space, the children were taught in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Martin Myckatyn.
Father Bilyk visited his parishioners in Burnaby, New Westminster, Coquitlam, Surrey and in the area along both banks of the Fraser River from Vancouver to Hope. He compiled lists of Ukrainian Catholics and Greek Catholic Slovaks and encouraged them to attend the liturgical services.
Construction of a church in New Westminster finally began on 1 October 1956 at the corner of 4th Avenue and Louellen Street. Plans were drawn up by the architect, Nicholas Flak of Edmonton. Mr. L. Kowalchuk supervised the building of the basement but construction was soon stopped because of financial difficulties. Despite the difficulties, efforts were made to finish the basement during 1960-61. The dept of $10,000 incurred with the purchase of the land and construction was eventually paid off, in part by Bishop Neil Savaryn, Eparch of Edmonton, and in part by the parish.
