Church survival threatened

Fr. Harry Chuckry is the Ukrainian Catholic parish priest for the Interlake area. He presides over 24 churches and is run off his feet on any given Sunday, performing three liturgies (sermons) at three different locales.

His territory runs from about Lockport in the south, to Red Rose, north of Peguis First Nation. Nine of his churches still have regular services. Fifteen churches have a service just once a year.

His churches are virtually all in the Eastern Interlake. That follows the settlement pattern of the first Ukrainians. In contrast, drive up Highway 6 in the Western Interlake and you won’t see a single Ukrainian Catholic church until you reach Lake St. Martin, 250 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

At the St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church in Fisher Branch, with its white stucco exterior and baby blue trim like a playhouse, the average age of the congregation is 80. About 15 people turn out for its once-a-month Sunday service. That’s a fairly typical demographic, said Chuckry.

Tale of two churches

There are two types of Ukrainian churches in Manitoba: Ukrainian Catholic, which acknowledges the Roman Catholic pope as its head; and Orthodox, which considers its head the Archbishop of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. The archbishop does not wield nearly the power that the pope does.

Ukraine accepted Christianity as its official religion in 988 AD from Constantinople. That is the Ukrainian Orthodox church of today, although it was known as Greek Orthodox originally. In 1596, some Ukrainians joined with the Roman Catholic Church to form the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

There are not stark differences between the religions, including their services and rites and architecture. In fact, most people queried in either religion were hard-pressed to come up with many differences, except that the Orthodox services tend to be longer.

One way to easily distinguish the two types of churches is by their crosses. The Ukrainian Catholic cross atop its domes is just the regular pole stake and one cross piece.

Ukrainian churches: The heart of Manitoba’s heartland

COOK’S CREEK — Even though it’s on the map and its name is on highway signs and even on this story’s placeline, there really is no Cook’s Creek.

It's not a town or village, or even a train stop. It never was. All it ever was is a post office, which today is a store.

And a church. But what a church.

Driving in, when you first spot Cook's Creek Ukrainian Immaculate Conception Church, you almost think you're having a hallucination. You might think you'd stumbled on a lost Disney World.

Architect Ruh’s reputation has grown with time

In his lifetime, Father Philip Ruh, the self-taught builder of so many Ukraininan Catholic churches in Manitoba, got little respect from the architectural community.

But David Butterfield, who has written extensively on Manitoba buildings and builders, thinks the Winnipeg architects of the day were wrong about Ruh.

“If these high society architects like Russell (of Presbyterian churches), who’s buried in the Elmwood Cemetery, could see the attention given to Ruh’s grave today, how venerated he is, they would be envious,” he said.

“The thing about Ruh is he was working through design problems and issues and trying to change things. He wasn’t just a hack. He wasn’t just putting up the same thing all the time. He was stretching himself and trying to find new ways to build. There’s no denying he was a serious and creative designer,” Butterfield said.

IN PICTURES: Manitoba’s Ukrainian churches