Flin Flon has lost another piece of its rich spiritual history with the closure of St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church.
After 65 years, hundreds of parishioners and countless memories, the landmark church quietly held its final service over the summer.
“It’s sad because you’re used to a place, used to the people,” said Jean Antoniw, who had been attending the church since 1961.
“I spent most of my life there as far as churchgoing goes.”
Though St. Mary’s had enough savings to keep the doors open for another two or three years, that was no longer feasible after its priest, who was based in The Pas, transferred to Winnipeg.
But with just six parishioners attending twice-monthly services at the time of closure, the end of St. Mary’s seemed inevitable.
“We knew it was coming eventually,” said Lena Kopachinski, a parishioner for about the past six decades.
For Kopachinski, who now attends St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Church, St. Mary’s will always hold a special place.
“It was just like a little family group,” she said. “We got there together and then we went out for lunch [after the service].”
Harry Antoniw, Jean’s husband and fellow parishioner, said the demise of St. Mary`s follows years of gradual decline in church attendance.
“This is something that nobody wants to see happen, but, you know, the older people who built the church years ago, they are gone,” he said, “and the young people…have left town.”
He noted that the closure is part of a broader northern trend. The transfer of Rev. Djura Maljik out of The Pas also marked the end of Ukrainian Catholic churches in The Pas and Thompson, decisions he described as pretty well final.
With its turrets visible from blocks away, St. Mary’s, situated on Hiawatha Avenue near Ruth Betts Community School, is one of Flin Flon’s most recognizable buildings.
According to the book Flin Flon, the church has its roots in the community`s early days as immigrants arriving from central Europe pledged to keep their religious traditions alive.
The organization and building program for St. Mary’s began in 1934 with the formation of the Ukrainian Catholic Brotherhood, headed by Father Peter Kreyworuchka. Two years later, a 61-member church committee was struck.
“The men and women raised money for a building fund, meanwhile working diligently to preserve the traditions of life in the old country,” read the book.
It wasn’t until 1949 that the Ukrainian Catholics purchased their own lot for a church. Construction proceeded promptly, with volunteers providing the labour and HBM&S (now Hudbay) lending assistance as needed.
With the church in operation, a rectory was added four years later in 1953, again on the strength of volunteers.
Jean Antoniw still remembers the days of the early 1960s when St. Mary’s was bursting at the seams and bustling with activity.
When she joined in 1961, the St. Mary’s Catholic Women’s League alone had 50 members, never mind the men and children who also worshipped at the church.
“We used to have quite a congregation,” she said. “We used to have all kinds of social events going on. It was a busy place years ago, but little by little members either left or passed away.”
In recent times St. Mary’s relied on fundraisers like bingos and raffles to keep the doors open.
But even that was becoming difficult with so few people available to take on the workload.
The future of the St. Mary’s building is unclear, as the former congregation needs clarification from Ukrainian Catholic headquarters on how to proceed with a possible sale.
St. Mary’s was the second local church to shut down in June as structural problems forced the closure of First Baptist Church.
Unlike St. Mary’s, however, First Baptist continues to hold services at an alternate location, First United Lutheran Church, as congregation members ponder options for a permanent location.
