A century later, Ukrainian church still helping new Ukrainians

When it was founded in 1925, St. Mary the Protectress Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in the North End was a welcoming and helpful place for immigrants seeking new lives in Canada.

As the church celebrates its centennial, it is still welcoming and helping Ukrainians fleeing war in their homeland.

“Helping each other never stops,” Eugene Hyworon, co-chair of the cathedral’s centennial committee, said.

A centennial gala will be held Saturday.

Church members have been helping Ukrainian newcomers with English lessons, and to find jobs, deal with income tax, register their children for school, get health cards and find doctors. The church also operates a food bank they can use.

“It’s important to help the new arrivals,” Hyworon, 85, said.

His parents were helped by the church when they arrived in Winnipeg from Ukraine in the late 1920s.

Back then, the cathedral was only a basement on Burrows Avenue— also known as Holy Street for the eight churches, including St. Mary the Protectress, in a nine-block area.

The cathedral chose that location because land was cheaper on Burrows, which was then on the outskirts of the city.

“It was just wilderness beyond it,” Hyworon said.

In the early days, the majority of members lived nearby, often within walking distance.

“Today, they live all over the city, in every part,” he said.

As parishioners raised funds over the decades, the cathedral expanded to what it is today, with its classic domes and ornately painted interior, serving waves of Ukrainian immigrants over generations.

Ruslan Kavetskyj, 51, who arrived from Ukraine in 2023 with his wife and two daughters, was among the most recent wave.

“The very first Sunday here, we went to the church,” he said, adding attending church regularly is very common for people in Ukraine.

Church members assisted the family after they arrived by helping them set up a house, find furniture and improve their English. Kavetskyj also got a job through a church member.

“They made us feel welcome, helped us feel at home,” he said. “The church has been very helpful.”

Kavetskyj appreciates that the church also has programs for his children, ages 16 and 12, and that services are in both English and Ukrainian.

“The liturgy is very familiar,” he said, adding he helps during the services.

While the family misses their home in Ukraine, being part of the church “helps us feel more at home in Winnipeg,” Kavetskyj said.

“Manitoba says it is a friendly province. It has been really friendly to us.”

Michael Burdz, 65, is also a member of the centennial committee.

“This is full circle for the church,” he said of helping refugees from Ukraine.

About half of the approximately 300 families who are part of the cathedral are newcomers, he noted.

“They have revitalized the congregation,” Burdz said.

While church members look back with satisfaction on how the cathedral has been at the heart of Ukrainian life in Winnipeg for a century, the centennial celebrations are tinged with sadness because of the situation in Ukraine, he said.

“Newcomers are in constant contact with their loved ones there,” Burdz said, adding some have lost relatives and friends since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

“They are thankful to be in Canada, but they are always thinking about people back in Ukraine.”

Prayers are said at the cathedral for Ukraine each Sunday, Hyworon said.

“We pray that it will not be crushed by Russia. Canada is our home country, but Ukraine is our mother country,” he said.

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